


Blind Love

by MegaKat



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (TV), Dragon Ball
Genre: Blindness, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, From Sex to Love, Gratuitous Smut, Language Barrier, Mating, Mating Bond, Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Shameless Smut, Smut, So Married, So much smut, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-02-13 19:05:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 55,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2161740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaKat/pseuds/MegaKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blasted into the future by the destruction of Vegeta-sai, Bardock is blinded and stranded on Jupiter. </p><p> Note: It might be a good idea to pull up my Saiyan Language Glossary if you're not already familiar with the extensive Saiyan language I've developed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Lightning blind, huh?” Makoto asked as she flicked the black bangs out of the unconscious warrior’s eyes. “Fuck me, he should be _dead_ after getting hit by that many fucking strikes. Even Jovians don’t go into the Great Eye without proper protection.”

                “No doubt, Majesty, but here he lies, breathing steadily,” the healer and her oldest friend said with a shrug that said he was just as answerless as she.

                “Well, get the eyedrops, I guess. If I’m going to have to execute his ass, I may as well do it looking him in the eyes.” Mako studied the warrior closely as she waited on the doctor, but the sound of a cabinet shutting forcefully told her what was wrong before the doc’s voice even did.

                “We’re out. Damn it.”

                “Didn’t I just procure a whole bottle of silver tears last year?” She asked curiously. “That should have been more than enough for a couple dozen people, Toki.”

                Motoki snorted at that, unable to stop the laugh that followed. “Apparently you’ve forgotten about the spar six months ago that laid seven Jovian warriors low, all of them lightning blind from your thunder dragon. And then last week, I had a dozen young idiots that had decided to surf the Eye with minimal protection. Other than that, just your usual accidents.”

                “Well, then,” she sighed, pulling out her communicator, “guess I’ll give my sister a call and tell the bitch to cry.” She laughed a little at that before dialing the queen of the moon. “And if that doesn’t work, I’ll call Rei; she can _always_ make Serenity cry with little to no effort.”

                ##############################

                The queen of Jupiter was reading as she sat at the unknown warrior’s bedside when he finally stirred, and she instantly moved to place a hand on his arm when he struggled at the bonds at his wrists and ankles. Panic filled his face the moment he opened his eyes, and Mako actually felt a wash of sympathy go through her the very second she saw him realize that he was blind. Enemy or not, she couldn’t help it; the man was clearly freaking out as he continued to struggle. “Shh,” she soothed, running her fingertips over his forehead. “I’m not going to hurt you, honey.”

                As if he knew it was a lie, he only fought harder, and Makoto gasped when one of the straps on his wrists snapped and he swung at her. “Hey, I’m trying to be nice, here!” She grunted before doing the one thing she could do. Using her powers, her body was filled with the strength of Jupiter, and she pinned his arms beside his head as she fluidly moved to straddle him. She wasn’t surprised when he really started to fight her, but she was patient and she grunted in approval when he finally went limp. “Much better. Now… what planet are you from, warrior, and why are you here?”

                A response that was likely extremely vulgar met her ears in a foreign, guttural language, and Mako sighed. “Alright. Let’s start simple. And if you move, I’m going to beat your ass,” she warned as she carefully released his left hand and drew it up to her cheek. “Makoto.”

                A huff from the warrior and a shake of his head told her that he didn’t understand, but since he was being good and wasn’t fighting her, she showed a bit more trust and let go of his right hand to cup both of his against her cheeks. “Makoto,” she repeated.

                The warrior blinked blindly when he felt her tap his bare chest and ask something in that lilting, musical-sounding language so different from his own. Where in the _hell_ had he landed!? And where was Frieza!? And most importantly, why in the blazing fucking hells wasn’t he **_dead_**!? Oh dear gods… maybe he _was_ dead… and _this_ was Hell! And **_what had happened to his eyes_**!?

That thought had him panicking again, and he wrenched his hands from hers to feel his own face, pressing his eyelids and then gingerly touching the eyeballs themselves.

                Mako sighed and couldn’t stop herself from stroking his hair comfortingly when he immediately sagged with clear relief, lying back once more as he continued to reassure himself that his eyes were still there. “Yeah, you still look like a god,” she chuckled, fairly sure at that point that he couldn’t understand her.

                Her words brought him out of his thoughts and he stared up at the inky black, concentrating on his other senses, listening and sniffing the air. He knew his captor was female just by her voice, but her scent… it was extremely pleasant and it had his tail swishing with interest. “Who are you?” He rumbled in his native language.

                Hearing a question, Mako wasn’t sure if she was answering it by taking his hand and pressing it between her breasts. “Makoto.”

                Her gentle intonation made Bardock relax as much as he was able, considering that he’d just woken to find out he was blind, bombarded by foreign smells and the sounds of an unknown language, and he went quiet as he continued to take in his surroundings through his remaining senses. As if the woman on top of him knew this, she seemed to relax as well and he was grateful for the quiet respite.

                Eventually, he stirred once more, and it was to move the massive, calloused hand from between her breasts as he drew hers to rest over his heart. “Bardock,” he rumbled, the word coming out in almost a growl.

                “Bardock,” Mako repeated gently, her free set of fingers caressing his jawline briefly.

                The sound of his name in that beautiful voice made his beast purr, and he snorted in amusement when she immediately shifted at the feeling of him stirring beneath the sheet. “Well, that part of me seems to be working just fine,” he mused aloud. “If I can get it up, maybe I’m not in Hell… shit, if I _was_ in Hell, it’d be a randy man on top of me and not what smells like the most beautiful woman I’ve ever encountered.”

                Blushing to her toes, Mako tried not to move as she felt something warm and firm poke her inner thigh. “Ok, I’m sure that’s just a perfectly natural reaction to having a woman on top of you and that you don’t mean anything by it, but do me a favor and get your dick under control?”

                Bardock didn’t understand a word, but the breathless quality to her voice made his lips turn up in a smartass smirk and he couldn’t stop himself from rocking his hips a single time just to make her gasp. “Hm… maybe it’s Heaven, then? Since you aren’t punching me or yelling or jumping off of me, I can only assume you’re interested.”

                Frankly, the queen of Jupiter was only stunned into silence, but when she felt his hand at her lower back and he gave a slow, delicious grind right against her core, she blinked and leapt off of the bed, slapping his hand in annoyance. Never mind that her body was aching for more of that kind of attention; it _had_ felt awfully good and it had been awhile since she’d taken a lover.

                “That answers it, then. Not Heaven,” Bardock chuckled, using his hands to feel for the edge of the bed and pull himself into a sitting position. His superior Saiyan senses were already adapting to his handicap, and he began using his tail as his eyes, his lids slipping shut as he felt everything around him with the extremely sensitive appendage.

                Mako could only watch as he explored with that dexterous brown length while she tried to keep her eyes off another length that was very, very visible due to the sheet falling away and onto the floor. _Damn. Ok, fine._ **_Hot damn_**. _And he’s only at half-mast!_ A dirty little voice in the back of her mind pointed out.

                She was broken out of her thoughts by the door opening and Toki walking in, only for him to look between the two of them and finally give her a confused look. “He’s aroused… am I missing something?”

                “Ugh… I had to restrain him and after he’d calmed down, having a woman on top of him did some perfectly natural things to him. I’m fine,” she added when Motoki’s mouth opened to ask the obvious question.

                Mako was barely in time to shove the blonde out of the way when Bardock growled and moved with lightning speed towards the sound of the other male’s voice, and this time he was pinned to the floor by the unnaturally strong queen, her elbow pressing into his throat. And her beautiful voice was now threatening, the words coming out of her mouth clearly a warning about what she would do to him if he tried that again.

                Tone did a lot of talking right then, and Bardock finally nodded when it seemed that she was finished cussing him and ordering him to stay put. “Maaah-Koto.”

                “What!?” She snapped, clearly still pissed about his attempt to escape.

 That’s what it had been, anyway—through the change in air current, he could tell that the door had been left open, and while he wasn’t sure how he would have escaped an unknown building without his eyesight, he was damned sure well going to try.

Mako sighed when the man beneath her asked something calmly, and she would have likely agreed to it had she been able to understand him. “I don’t understand, Bardock.”

He just sighed at that and shook his head, then pushed up to get his point across. He was mildly surprised that she moved, but he smirked in understanding when he heard the closing of the door in the room and the air currents shifted a little. So, this woman was fairly intelligent, it seemed. “My clothes would be nice,” he mused aloud, despite the fact that she didn’t understand his language. “Unless, of course, this _is_ Heaven and you’ve changed your mind. You can kick out the other male, though… I don’t like sharing.”

“I have the distinct feeling that you’re being a smartass,” Mako snorted as she rolled her eyes and knelt beside him to help him up. “Come on, back to the bed,” she ordered as she guided him to where she wanted him and helped him sit down, lifting a brow as she felt his tail briefly skim over her arm and then her face. Apparently that thing was acting as his eyes? Hm, that was kinda neat when she thought about it. “Now… we need to figure out some way to communicate,” she thought aloud as he sat and she handed him the sheet.

Bardock smirked as he covered himself, smelling her slight arousal and sensing her minor increase in temperature as she handed him the sheet; apparently she was looking at what he had to offer. A fleeting thought of offering her some extremely pleasurable services in exchange for his freedom flitted through his mind and he chuckled out loud at such a ludicrous idea. “Maaah-Koto.”

“What?” Mako jumped slightly when he reached out and found the hem of her shirt, then tugged at it before he pointed at himself. “Oh. You want clothes. Sure. Toki, would you grab them?”

“Yeah, they’re in the next room.” Motoki was careful to close the door behind him when he left, and when he returned he was relieved to see that Bardock hadn’t moved from his seat on the bed. “Here,” he offered, but when he came close enough to touch, Bardock bared his teeth and let out a feral growl.

“Well, he sure can communicate a threat or a warning without words,” the healer pointed out.

“I’ve been watching him, and I think his sense of smell is way better than ours,” Mako said as she held out her hand to take the bundle in her friend’s hand. “I think he’s wary of other males. Let me try. Bardock?” She asked softly as she approached.

“Maaah-Koto.” Her assumption had been correct, he didn’t want the male coming any closer to him, even though he was likely not a threat. But the woman… she smelled wonderful, and his beast had made it clear to him that he wouldn’t allow her to be harmed. Even by himself.

“Makoto,” she corrected lightly, trying her best not to giggle at the way he drew out the first syllable of her name.

Bardock just huffed at that and shrugged. “Koto,” he supplied, and when he heard her let out a little laugh he managed a tiny smirk. He jumped a little when he unexpectedly felt a soft, feminine hand on his bare shoulder, but he allowed the contact and then felt something being placed in his lap. A brief inspection yielded his clothing and armor, and he gave her a brief nod of gratitude before shucking off the sheet and yanking on his pants. “Much better.”

Mako watched curiously as he donned his armor, clearly not needing to see as he fastened the straps. Then he put on what looked like ankle and wrist warmers, all in crimson, then his boots. But when he found nothing else in the little pile of clothing, he looked extremely troubled. “What’s wrong, Bardock?”

Immediately, he pointed to his forehead, then tugged at one of his wristbands, then pointed at his forehead again, his voice sounding urgent as he answered her question in that guttural tongue. “Toki, did he have a hat or something? Whatever’s missing is really bothering him.”

“There was some sort of sweatband, but when we were testing all of that really durable clothing, tests showed that it was soaked in blood.” Motoki shrugged a little when Mako shot him a look and the warrior on the bed seemed to be becoming increasingly distressed, pointing repeatedly to his forehead as he repeated the same phrase over and over. “I um… I threw it out,” he muttered.

“Did you empty the trash!?” Mako snapped, unsure as to why she was becoming as agitated as Bardock. Damn it, the man looked like he was ready to cry! “Bardock,” she said quickly, taking his hand in hers. “You stay put,” she ordered, followed by a grasping of his shoulders and a slight pressing down of her hands. He seemed to get it and he nodded, and she immediately left the room to dig around in Motoki’s lab trashcan.

When she returned with the bright red piece of cloth in hand and pressed it into Bardock’s fingers, the sight of him sagging in relief made her smile. “Better?” Clearly it was all better when he sniffed it, confirming that it was his, and then tied it about his forehead.

“ _D’in m’yo_ , Koto,” he rumbled as he placed a hand over his heart and briefly bowed his head in her direction.

The gesture added with the words told her that he was saying thank you, and she patted him on the shoulder. “You’re welcome, Bardock.” Looking to Motoki, she sighed. “I’m sorry I snapped at you, I just… there’s something about him. That’s the only way I can explain it. You wouldn’t happen to have a clue what he’s saying, would you? Have you even heard this language before?”

“It’s ok, Mako… and no, I haven’t. I would call up Ami and ask her; surely the Mercurian archives could tell us _something_. I already ran his armor and clothing makeup through their open database, but it came up with nothing.”

Whipping out her communicator, the queen of Jupiter dialed the queen of Mercury and gave her a smile. “Heya, Ami-chan. Need your help with an unknown language.”

More than happy to be of assistance, the blue-haired sovereign pulled out her computer as she asked what was going on and her sister filled her in. Finally, she had loaded a program that had just about every known language, dead or active, onto her computer. “Just make him talk and I’m sure the computer will tell me something.”

“Bardock?” Mako asked, smiling when his head swiveled in her direction. Hm, she could ask him to talk, but he wouldn’t understand. So how…?

He jumped when he felt a tap to his forehead, followed by what was likely a question, and frowned deeply. “Are you asking me about my headband, woman?”

That last word had sounded like he was shushing her, and Mako lifted a brow. “Did you just tell me to shhh?” She asked incredulously.

“Keep him talking, Mako, the computer says that it needs more words,” Ami informed her.

The tap came to his forehead again, and Bardock sighed. “Why are you asking me about my headband when we can’t even understand each other? Gods damn it, woman, I’d bother telling you if it wouldn’t be a complete waste of my breath!” One more tap made him growl, and he rolled his eyes and sighed. “It was worn by my friend Toma and it’s soaked in his blood, so I wear it wherever I go so he and my crew will be with me in spirit. Are you happy now, Koto?” Apparently she was; Bardock’s mouth was open to yell at her some more, but it snapped shut when he felt a pair of lips on his cheek. “The hell was that for?” He mumbled.

“Got it! It’s a dead language, Mako. Something called ‘Saiyan.’ Honestly, the computer only has a handful of words on file, which it identified from his speech. ‘Sh’ means ‘woman.’ He was addressing you, not hushing you.”

At the sound of the word ‘Saiyan,’ Bardock perked up and was listening intently to the sound of this other woman’s voice, which he had ignored up until then. He couldn’t smell her, so clearly she wasn’t really in the room and wasn’t worth his time. But now that he knew that she knew what he was, he was reaching out for the scouter, his fingertips tracing Makoto’s face, only to find it bare. “Where’s your scouter, woman?”

“I think he’s asking for your communicator, Mako,” Ami supplied. “The computer gave me the word for phone, and again, the word for woman.”

“Trust me, I heard the ‘sh’ part that time.” Gingerly placing it in Bardock’s hand, Mako waited for him to say something… and she didn’t have to wait long. He was talking quickly, his voice urgent, but Ami’s computer was only translating every ten words, making the genius shake her head on the other end of the line.

“I got ‘kill, dead, death…’ Wow, they have way more than a couple words for kill,” Ami informed her. “Apparently the way he said it, it meant ‘genocide.’”

Genocide…? And Ami had said it was a dead language, too. But then how…? “Ami, how long has it been since Saiyan was even used?”

“Hm… let’s see… the planet Vegeta-sai exploded over ten thousand years ago.”

“Vegeta-sai,” Bardock grunted at the voice on what he was beginning to think of as a handheld scouter. “ _P’eu m’yo_.”

“He said ‘my home.’ The computer got that one.” Ami pushed her glasses up onto the bridge of her nose as she studied the limited amounts of words on it. After a full minute she spoke. “ _Ge_ …”

That was all it took to get Bardock talking again. “ _G’in, m’eh ge_.”

“Yes. I warrior,” the computer spoke on Ami’s end of the line.

“Ami-chan, set the damned thing up to translate _both_ ways?” Mako suggested with a teasing chuckle. “Common sense, sugar.”

“Argh… you’re right, of course. There. Talk, and we’ll see what the computer can translate into Saiyan.”

Bardock turned towards the sound of Makoto’s voice when he suddenly heard her talking, her voice aimed at him, but he shook his head until he heard the computer on the other end of the handheld scouter. Clearly, they were attempting to talk to him through it. “Wait,” he grunted, holding up a hand in the universal sign to stop. “Slow down.”

Apparently that had worked, and he listened intently to the translator, which was only giving him a few words. “Where… how… you… genocide… land…” Ok, she was likely asking him how he came to be… wherever he was.

Mako closed her mouth when he motioned for her to stop again and waited patiently as the computer continued to try and translate her long line of questions. And then Bardock was talking, but his answer was short, and the computer’s was even shorter. “Killed… dead… genocide… … … here.”

Sighing, Mako shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“No understand,” the computer said in its monotonous voice.

Bardock sighed at that and reverted to pantomime, pointing at himself, then closing his fist in front of him, shaking it, then opening it violently to mimic what an explosion looked like. Then he pointed at himself again and repeated the action.

“You died?” The computer asked.

A quick nod and a sigh from Bardock had Mako confused. “So… you’re telling me that there was an explosion, and you died. And it blasted you ten thousand years into the future?”

“Explosion… you died… blast… ten thousand years… future?”

Bardock’s eyes went wide at that and he shook his head, wishing to the gods that he could just fucking _see_. Was this woman insane!? “You are telling me that I’m ten thousand years in the future?”

“You say… I am ten thousand years… future?”

“Yes. Vegeta-sai… gone… ten thousand years.”

Mako couldn’t stop herself from taking his hand and squeezing it comfortingly when it looked like he was going to cry, and she gradually drew it to her face and nodded slowly, unable to speak the affirmation aloud. “I’m sorry, Bardock.” When she heard the computer translate, she repeated the words it had said. “ _Mah’ni_ , Bardock.”

They all heard Bardock rumble something, but when the computer didn’t translate and only answered his question, they surmised that he was speaking directly to it. “Command not understood.” It repeated it in Saiyan, and Bardock grunted, not surprised.

“Computer,” he ordered, “define ‘Frieza.’”

That, the computer _could_ do. “Frieza… warlord… dead. Defeated in year seven-eight-six…Son Goku… Saiyan name, Kakarot. Killed three years later… Trunks, son… Vegeta.”

Bardock closed his eyes at that and sighed, unable to stop his lips from twitching up in a somewhat satisfied smirk. So, his son had defeated Frieza. The runt, the one that was only of average power level and would have likely amounted to nothing, had apparently become a great warrior. And then their prince’s _br’at_ had finished the job three years later. Good. It was fitting that Frieza had met his end at the hands of Saiyan warriors.

Seeing a fraction of peace coming over him, Mako smiled a little and listened to Ami explain everything that the computer had told him. Oh, so his son had killed the man that had destroyed his people? No wonder he looked slightly satisfied. “Ami-chan, do you think you can look up everything possible on the Saiyan race and Vegeta-sai and send it over to my computer? Maybe that translator thingy, too?”

Ami chuckled. “It’s not a ‘thingy,’ Mako-chan. It’s a highly sophisticated program, capable of translating even thousands of years old dead languages… if you hadn’t noticed. “

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, it’s a computer _thingy_ that goes beep boop and does whatever you tell it to. Just send it over?” Mako asked with a whine. Gods, she hated it when Mercury started to get technical with her!

“Shall I add a processor that attempts to fill in unknown vernacular?” Ami asked with a smug little smile, knowing she was getting on her brawnier sister’s nerves. Judging by the twitch in Mako’s eyebrow, it was working. “The _thingy_ will try and learn the rest of his language when he talks, and then the _thingy_ will talk back,” she added in a slow voice meant only for stupid people.

“Ami-chan, if you weren’t billions of miles away, I would totally fucking thunder dragon your ass right now,” she mumbled.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Ami replied sweetly. “Sent… and I love you too, Mako-chan.”

#################################

It wasn’t until an hour later as Makoto tried to reason with her stupid computer that she realized she hadn’t offered Bardock anything to eat. “Gods, I’m such an impolite bitch,” she sighed. “Bardock?”

Lying back on his bed, he just grunted and looked over, broken out of his thoughts about Frieza and the son he’d seen only once. “Koto.”

She set the computer aside, knowing there was nothing she could do for it while it updated over a thousand years’ worth of programming, and she sat on the edge of his bed to pat his stomach. “Eat?”

Bardock understood that and pantomimed putting food in his mouth to confirm her meaning. “ _Ad. G’in.”_

“ _Ad_ is eat?”

“ _G’in_ ,” Bardock replied, using his hands to guide him into a sitting position. That put him so close to her that their legs were pressing together, and he couldn’t help but lean forward and use his nose to answer questions he couldn’t otherwise ask.

Mako yelped, but was held gently in place by his hands and tail when she tried to jump up. “Bardock! Bardock, what are you doing!?”

“ _Kot’tor_ ,” he chuckled, amused by her reaction. On Vegeta-sai, blind warriors were allowed the liberty of physical contact such as this in order to ‘see’ what and who they were dealing with, but he knew that Koto didn’t know that. “Just seeing you, woman. Hold still.”

A reassuring pat to her back made her hold still, but she shivered when she felt his nose at her throat and it slid over her carotid artery. What in the hell was he doing? His body language said that whatever this was was perfectly platonic, but the feeling of him sliding his nose over her skin felt _anything_ but.

His sense of smell was telling him a lot about her; she was slightly aroused by what he was doing, but that was understandable. The one thing that confused him, though, was the utter lack of a male’s scent on such a strong woman. Hell, she’d managed to subdue a Saiyan warrior all on her own… how was such a prize of a female _not_ mated!? Heh… maybe she was so damned strong that she’d managed to fight off any and all suitors and didn’t _want_ to be mated or bred. Well, good for her if that was the case. Few females were ever that strong.

Next was her face, and Bardock was careful and slow so as not to spook her when he moved his fingers up to her jawline and began to explore. He felt her relax at that; apparently this part was a common practice for the blind among her people. He managed not to lick his lips when his fingertips painted a picture of her in his mind: strong jaw, soft skin, large eyes and full lips… what he saw in his head was likely the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Further exploration found a pair of what seemed to be flower-shaped earrings in her lobes, and long, soft, thick hair tied back with some sort of decorative ornament. He tugged that out of her hair and ignored her huff of annoyance at the action, then sniffed the ornament before handing it to her. He then drew a handful of her hair to his nose and gave it a sniff. Again, he found only her scent, and no traces of a male or brats on her. Just her and the sweet-smelling soap she used to wash with.

When he grunted and gave her a nod, Mako tied her hair back again and couldn’t stop herself from giggling. “So… do I pass?” She asked wryly.

“ _Ad_ ,” Bardock replied simply since he couldn’t understand her. He took her hand when she offered it, and slowly followed her through the door, shuffling his boots uncertainly behind her as he tried to find any obstacles that might trip him up.

Seeing this, Makoto stopped and stood at his side instead of in front of him, and wrapped an arm around his waist, keeping her other hand linked with his. “Sorry, Bardock. I didn’t think. We’ll go slow.”

Bardock just grunted, guessing from her tone that she was apologizing, and forced himself to fully trust that she wouldn’t run him into anything as she slowly guided him out the door. He then heard her unlock something, followed by the sound of metal sliding on tracks, and realized that he’d been locked up in a jail cell this entire time. Damn, if these people’s jails weren’t a hell of a lot cleaner than Vegeta-sai’s! He’d thought himself in a medical ward that entire time!

Listening and sniffing the air as she guided him through hallways and down a short flight of stairs, Bardock took it all in and only perked up when he smelled food from several rooms over. “Koto, _ad_?” His belly seconded that question and rumbled loudly, and he couldn’t stop his lips from twitching when his ears were graced with the most beautiful, musical laughter he’d ever heard. Damn, it really was amazing that she hadn’t been claimed by a male, yet.

“Yes, yes. _Ad_. Come on, Bardock,” Mako giggled, leading him to a seat in the main palace kitchen. She followed up by lightly pressing on his shoulders in a signal for him to stay put, and when he nodded she went and grabbed a plate from near the stove. It looked like it was her supper, so she knew she likely wasn’t filching someone else’s, and she placed it in front of him and a set of chopsticks in his hand.

Bardock studied the curious wooden sticks in his hand, gave them a sniff, then set them down before he used his fingers to find something edible and stick it in his mouth. Ugh… it was roughage! He chewed and swallowed, but made a face and dipped his head to give it all a long sniff. There it was! Meat!

“Just like a little kid,” Mako mused as she tried to withhold her laughter at the sight of him sniffing, eating meat, then sniffing again to assure himself that he wasn’t putting another vegetable in his mouth. Within moments, he’d cleaned the plate of all meat and some of the potatoes that had been on there, then set down the plate with a little huff that sounded like disappointment. Huh… maybe he was still hungry? “ _Ad_?” Mako asked softly.

“ _Buh’tir. Ad v’nu fa’i.”_

“No clue what you said Bardock, but I’ll see what I can find,” she chuckled, giving him her nonverbal cue to stay where he was. She rummaged in the fridge then and found a fully cooked ham, and went about slicing up enough for a full meal before she put it in the microwave.

Bardock was practically drooling at the scent of the meat when she sat it in front of him, but he yanked back his hand when he found it too hot for consumption.

“Oh sorry, hang on,” Mako said, cutting him a smaller piece and blowing on it for him before she held it to his lips with the chopsticks. “Eat.” She tried not to giggle again when his tongue slipped out to test the temperature first, and once he was sure it was fine, he devoured the offering and grunted in approval. “ _V’nu_.”

“More?” She guessed aloud. “Sure, hang on.” Mako found his mouth open and waiting when she looked up, and she couldn’t help but laugh at the eager face he was making.

Bardock chuckled as well, sure that he was quite the sight, but then opened his mouth again and made the universal “Aaaaah” noise. He only closed it when she shoved in a good portion of meat, and he purred happily as he chewed it, ignoring his beast when it reminded him that only mates fed each other. _Shut up,_ he thought. _I’m blind and she’s just helping me. Never mind that she’s the best thing I’ve ever smelled._ He took another bite when she offered it, letting her guide it into his mouth, but after that he waved away her hand. His beast was being too insistent on mating her just because he was letting her feed him, but he hoped he wasn’t offending her by his refusal.

“Oh, you want to feed yourself. Sure,” Mako said lightly, handing him the chopsticks. She wasn’t surprised when he used them as a spear and stabbed a slice of meat, but she kept the urge to giggle down. Clearly, his people used a different utensil to eat with.

She kept quiet while he stuffed his face, just studying him curiously. The main point of her study was the fuzzy brown appendage swishing around, brushing over various things now and then, clearly giving him information about his surroundings since he couldn’t use his eyes to do so. Huh… it really was a dexterous, sensitive thing, wasn’t it?

Bardock dropped the chopsticks and made a very un-Saiyan squeak when the feed of information from his tail to his brain suddenly stopped and he felt nothing but raw pleasure coursing through his body, overloading his heightened senses, making his beast purr and growl at the same time. “K—K—Koto…!?” He managed in a strangled voice when he felt a soft hand fluff through the fur, flashing spots behind his cloudy eyes.

“Huh… what’s wrong Bardock?” She asked absently as she studied his tail closely with her fingertips, noting the abundant vertebrae beneath the skin. Wow, this thing was super flexible, if the way it was wriggling in her hands was any indicator. It was then that she noticed the loud purr and the heavy, choked panting coming from the man sitting beside her, and she immediately released his tail at the sight of the massive tent in his pants. “Oh damn!” She squeaked. “Apparently it’s an erogenous zone, too… sorry! I didn’t know!”

Leaving furrows in the table from the grip of his hands, Bardock trembled and wrapped his tail tightly about his waist, trying like hell to get a handle on his inner beast and the urge it was impressing upon him to fuck Makoto into the floor. “Woman, you’re lucky as hell that I _know_ you didn’t have a clue what you were doing,” he ground out.

His cloudy eyes met hers then, and she swallowed nervously when he growled at her in what was either anger or lust… or both, pointing at his tail and barking out something she didn’t understand. “I’m sorry!” She said quickly. “I swear, I didn’t know! I won’t touch it again!”

He didn’t know the words, but her tone conveyed her apologies and he nodded as he slipped his hands between his legs to adjust his aching cock. “Damn it, woman. It’s fine,” he added with a dismissive wave of his hand when he heard her apologizing yet again. “Not the first time a curious alien woman fucked with my tail.”

Mako sat quietly after that, embarrassed by her faux pas, and only moved to get him another plate of meat whenever he requested it. Damn if he couldn’t eat a lot of food in one sitting! He’d eaten a whole ham on his own, along with five pounds of potatoes, which Mako fried up herself just for him. She’d been pleased with his reaction to them; he must have liked them a lot with the way he’d asked for seconds… and thirds… and fourths.

But Bardock finally leaned back and yawned a little, and Mako smiled at the sight when he began to purr softly in contentment. He must have been full and sleepy. “Want me to find you a bed to crash in?” She giggled.

Bardock put his hands together flat and motioned like he was lying his head on them, and when he heard her confirm his pantomime, he took her arm and let her lead him down several sets of corridors while his tail swooshed in front of them, letting him ‘see’ his surroundings. That was when he smelled the male from before, and he grunted when he heard him asking something.

“Bardock, this is Motoki. Toki,” she repeated, placing the Saiyan’s hand on Toki’s chest.

With some pointing and a raising of his eyebrows, Bardock asked through gestures where she was going. He’d much rather have her guiding him than some male he was barely acquainted with; at least his beast trusted _her_. He wasn’t sure why that was, but he wasn’t about to question his primal side’s instincts since it had never once been wrong about someone’s scent. “Koto?” He asked again.

She smiled patiently and took his hands in hers, making the sleeping gesture with them and her own face, and when he sighed and nodded, she gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Toki will take good care of you, Bardock.”

“I’ll show him to the male guest quarters two floors down,” the blonde informed her. “I’ll make sure he’s close to my own room.”

############################

Waking blind, Bardock took a moment to adjust and forced himself not to panic, reminding himself that he’d been hit by lightning several times upon his arrival and that he was just going to have to get used to it. Once that was out of the way, he wondered what had woken him, then realized he hadn’t taken a piss since he’d woken.

Sure, he was Saiyan and could hold his water for a long time, but even he had his limits. “Damn it, where are my clothes?” He muttered as he used his tail to sweep along the floor. Unable to find them, he gave up and started to search the room for a door, but when he found it, the scents beyond it told him he was in the corridor that led to his room. “Shit. Where’s the pisser?”

He went back in his room and growled when he didn’t find any other doors except for a closet. Apparently he didn’t have a private bathroom, and that little bastard Toki hadn’t showed him where it was located. Whether it was an oversight or done on purpose, he didn’t know, though. Likely the former. “Ok, fine. I’ll find it on my own.”

After thirty minutes of wandering in the nude and finding only locked doors, Bardock’s head perked up when he caught a sweet scent hanging faintly in the air. “Koto,” he sighed in relief. “I’ll find her, and then she can show me where the bathroom is.”

He followed her scent to a door that wasn’t locked, but found himself in a stairwell and muttered a few choice things about being blind as he used his tail to carefully feel out each step before he moved his feet. After checking the door on the next level up, he decided that the scent wasn’t in that hallway and continued up another floor, grinning in triumph when her smell got stronger. “Heh. See, I’m not fucking helpless,” he whispered to himself. “I found her all on my own.”

Bardock opened the door and for a moment just took in her soothing scent, but when he was suddenly barked at in Solarian and his nose was bombarded with a strange male’s scent, he growled and formed a ki ball in his hand out of pure instinct. “Back off,” he warned in Saiyan, letting his tail guide him past whomever it was that was blocking his path.

He was trying to keep his temper and was doing an admirable job of it until he smelled a group of males surrounding him, and the combination of the smells and the aggressive hormones in the air made him lash out with his ki, sending them flying in every direction as they yelled words he couldn’t understand.

He trembled when his tail brushed against several legs, telling him that there were more unknown people around him, and the hostile scents grew so strong that they were all he could smell; they were completely blocking out any sense of direction he’d had, along with the scent of the woman he was trying like hell to find.

“Koto!” He yelled as he was surrounded once more, his panic rising when someone suddenly grabbed him by the arm and shoved him roughly against a wall, the angle pinching his tail painfully. He was losing his balance then, his arms flailing blindly in a quest for direction when he was yanked to the side and punched in the stomach. “Maaah-Koto!” He yelled loudly, praying that he was close to her as he let his beast take over a bit and flare his ki high enough to burn anyone touching him.

A yell and more hands had him fighting and using the air currents to guide him, but without his sight he couldn’t keep it up for long without using more of his ki, and if he did that, he ran the risk of bringing the entire building down on top of him since he couldn’t see to direct it.

Finally, he was tackled to the floor, and he fought and swung wildly when four hands had him pinned, one of them securing his tail to the carpet. That sent a real shiver of fear up his spine, and he bellowed the one word that might be understood as loudly as he possibly could. “ ** _Maaah-Koto_**!”


	2. Chapter 2

Mako woke with a start at the sound of her name being _roared_ , and she jumped out of her bed and immediately threw her door open, looking around to find two guards sitting on a naked, muscular—“ _Bardock_!?” She was running then, shoving the guards aside, and wasn’t surprised to see a dozen more knocked out on the floor near the stairwell. “Bardock, what are you doing!?” She asked. When he just sighed and sagged into the carpet, every muscle visibly relaxing, she let out a rush of air and sympathetically ran a hand through his spikey hair. “Bardock, honey… you’re ok. You’re safe here.”

Her soothing voice and the reappearance of her equally calming scent just made him purr, and he trustingly looped his tail around her arm while he ignored the muttering of the guards. He was safe. That’s what her scent communicated to him more than anything. Safety.

“ _Mah’ni_ ,” he sighed, positive that he’d caused quite the scene. But when he’d woken all alone in a strange room and couldn’t even find the right place to take a piss, he’d panicked a little bit. Gods, if only he could see, he wouldn’t be such a fucking mess!

“Shh… it’s ok, Bardock. Come on,” she cooed, linking her fingers with his to pull him up and help him stand.

“Majesty, what are you doing!?” One of the guards asked in horror when she began to lead the completely naked warrior to her private chambers.

“I’m helping a scared, defenseless—ok, fine! He’s not so defenseless!” She added with a look to all the unconscious guards lying in the hall. “But he _is_ scared and blind, and he’s been displaced by over ten thousand years onto a totally unknown planet! No one knows his languages or customs, and he can’t even see to find his way around! Think of how _you_ would feel in that situation! Pretty fucking helpless, right!?”

Blushing at her little outburst, Mako left them all speechless and guided Bardock into her room, where he immediately mumbled something and pointed at his groin. “Huh? Does it hurt or something? Did one of the guards kick you in the nuts?” Her eyes went wide in understanding when he cupped himself and shifted from foot to foot. He was clearly doing the pee-pee dance. “Oh dear gods, no one showed you where the bathroom was. Come on, come on,” she sighed, leading him through another door and to the toilet.

Since he couldn’t see to stand and piss and knew by his sense of smell that he was in her private bathroom, he was a gentleman and sat to do his business, not wanting to leave a mess all over her seat and floor. “ _D’in m’yo_ ,” he finally sighed when he was finished after a two full minutes of peeing. Gods, he wouldn’t have been able to hold it for much longer, either. Thank the gods he’d managed to track her scent as far as he had, or he would have found the nearest corner or potted plant to pee in.

“You’re very welcome,” Mako replied. She yawned then and considered the long walk back to the guest quarters, but Bardock was already pointing at himself and then gesturing towards the entire room. Combined with the beseeching, helpless look he was giving her, she caved and led him to her massive, comfortable bed, noting the way his tail was still looped about her wrist. Judging by how sensitive it was from her earlier exploration of it, its placement was some sort of gesture of trust. “That’s actually sweet,” she sighed before climbing into bed. “Stay on your side,” she ordered.

That order was in vain; Bardock was already snuggling in close to her, purring his head off as he spooned her from behind and wrapped his tail around her waist, his nose buried in her hair and drawing in her scent. “You are so lucky that I won’t hit a blind man,” she huffed. “Especially one that looked as terrified as you did in the hallway.”

A leg draping over her own and tugging her closer made her struggle. “The hell, Bardock!?”

“Tch… fine, woman,” he snorted. “I was just getting comfortable.”

#######################

When Mako woke to being held, even she had to admit that it was an awfully nice feeling, and she snuggled in tightly to the chest her head was resting on, her arm winding around the warm body surrounding hers. Dear Zeus, he smelled so nice, too… like wood smoke and fire and power all rolled into one. “No,” she grumbled when he shifted, obviously awake. Her arm tightened around him then and she sighed happily when he went still. “The one privilege I get as queen is being allowed to sleep in from time to time… and I want to do that right now. I’m comfortable.”

Bardock was definitely not complaining about her clear desire to just cuddle, and he relaxed and began to purr in contentment as he simply held her and ran his fingers through her unbound hair, his tail sliding lazily up and down her spine. It had been a long, long time since he’d held a woman like that, and he briefly felt a pang of guilt for his dead mate. She’d been dead before Kakarot had even come out of the incubation pod and he’d been born by the time Bardock had finished mourning Romayna, but it was depressing to think that she’d been dead and gone for over ten-thousand years.

Why was he so far into the future anyway? And how had Frieza’s blast knocked him not only through space, but time as well?

“You ok?” Makoto sighed, noting that he’d stopped purring.

Her voice broke him out of his thoughts, and he chuckled as he realized that he was thinking too morbidly while he was holding a beautiful woman. His mind should have been on seducing her and getting what little pleasure he could from his situation, not on the actions that had gotten him there. He could save that for when he managed to access a computer that understood his language. “Heh… _ksha’or, Koto m’yo_?” He asked jokingly.

“Come again?” She asked, totally unaware of how her words could have been used as a pun had they understood one another. The queen of Jupiter got her answer when she felt a hand stroke her inner thigh, but his grin kept her from punching his arm a lot harder when she retaliated. “Pervert. You’re lucky I know you’re kidding.”

Bardock just chuckled at that, knowing that she understood it as a joke, and turned her in his arms so he could just bury his face in her hair and breathe in that utterly calming scent. His purr was going full throttle once more, and he made a soft sound of approval when she just relaxed into the embrace, giving him the comfort that he and his beast both craved. “ _D’in m’yo_ ,” he finally whispered when she drew away after over a half hour of just letting him hold her.

“You’re welcome. Now… time to get up and face the day,” she sighed. Pulling her communicator out of her subspace, she dialed Motoki first. She was met with a deep frown and she sighed heavily when he glared at her. Apparently he’d been informed of her little sleepover. “Heya, Toki,” she managed in a nonchalant tone, “I need you to please get Bardock’s clothing together and bring it to my chambers… and then we need to find a room for him that’s a bit more suitable for his handicap. No one showed him where the bathroom was when he was given quarters last night, and I’m sure you all put him in the guest quarters that share a communal bathroom down the hall.”

The blonde huffed and dramatically hung his head at that, ruffling his hair thoughtfully. “Yeah… I did, didn’t I? Mako, I’m sorry, I didn’t even think of such a thing,” he admitted. That glare was back though, and he studied her disheveled hair. “He didn’t try anything, did he?” Sure, he and Mako hadn’t been intimate in several centuries, but he still couldn’t help feeling protective of her.

Mako snorted at that and actually laughed, shaking her head vigorously. “Dear Zeus, no! Bardock just shared the bed after I showed him the bathroom, that’s all!” And speaking of which, he was already out of her bed and seemed to be using his tail as a blind man’s cane, feeling out for walls or obstacles in his way as he used his nose to locate the smell of water in the bathroom. “He’s adapting really fast,” she mused aloud as she watched his lips twitch up in triumph when he found the doorjamb and let himself into her powder room. “Gods… I’d be helpless after only a day of waking up blind.”

“Maybe Saiyans just adapt better than Solarians. Who knows? Anyways, I’ll head on up with his clothes in a moment, and we’ll find him a room in the royal wing, since it’s the only place that has private bathrooms.”

“Sounds good.” Mako got her computer out then, and seeing that it was still downloading all of the updates to her computer—it wasn’t even a fifth of the way finished—she sighed and called her sister. “Ami-chan, would you mind breaking out the translator thingy for me again?”

“Let me guess… your _thingy_ hasn’t been updated since Selene was on the throne and it’s still downloading?”

Glaring at Ami’s smug little smile, Mako rolled her eyes and flopped back onto the bed. “Yes, my thingy is still updating and likely will be for a week. So I would appreciate it if you used your thingy to translate for me. Bardock had a bit of a freak out last night and I want to assure him that I’m moving him to a closer room.”

“Ah, that’s understandable.” Ami pulled out her computer then and had the program running when Bardock returned, and she blushed when she saw how very, very naked he was… and then she noted Makoto’s appearance and gaped. “Mako-chan!? You did _not_ sleep with him after a single day of knowing him! Oh my dear sweet Mercury, I can understand that he might want to find some comfort, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for him psychologically after all he’s been through! You don’t even speak the same language!”

Facepalming, Mako just shook her head and sighed. “Ami-chan, I didn’t fuck him. He just slept in my bed, that’s all. A man and a woman _can_ share a bed without being intimate, you know.”

A low, sexy chuckle from the man sitting beside her had Mako peeking out from between her fingers and giggling. “See, even he gets it,” she said with amusement.

“ _F’ri k’sha’or_ ,” he chuckled.

“No sex,” the computer translated. Another laugh from Bardock, then the computer added, “She see me?”

“ _G’in_ ,” Ami replied sourly. “I can see you just fine, _ge_.”

Bardock laughed harder at that, holding his sides when they began to hurt. “Impressed!?” He finally barked out, and when the computer translated and she merely huffed, he had tears of laughter rolling down his face.

“Enough,” Ami sighed. “Mako-chan, tell him whatever it is you need to tell him.”

He was still chuckling when the computer said, “new home… closer… Makoto,” and he nodded to let them know he understood. “ _D’in m’yo_ ,” he replied with a tiny grin.

But then he looked thoughtful, and Ami smiled when her computer asked, “who you?”

“I’m Ami, queen of Mercury. Mako’s sister,” she replied evenly.

“Hm… are you a princess?” Bardock asked curiously. It certainly would explain the way she commanded so many people, and why she was so well guarded the night before.

“No. Makoto… queen,” the computer replied. “Queen… Jupiter. Makoto’s sisters… queens… planets.”

“Makes sense,” he rumbled. “Really makes sense that she’s not mated… she’s obviously the strongest female on her planet and she can just choose one when she’s ready.”

The computer was still translating, and Mako blushed at his private muttering. Ami explained what she was about to ask, though. “I did some reading, and the Saiyans were a warrior society, Mako. They took what they wanted, when they wanted it. They only respected power and physical might, and if there was a woman they wanted and she couldn’t fight him off, she became his mate. And they mated for life.”

“The fuck?” She asked incredulously. “You’re telling me that they could just—“

“You misunderstand,” Ami said quickly, shaking her head. “Instances of rape were very, very rare on Vegeta-sai. There were many checks and balances in place to ensure that women weren’t harmed or taken unwillingly. Sure, it was kind of backwards the way they did it, but it seems to have worked just fine for them. His culture lived hard and fast, and despite their superior longevity, warriors rarely made it past the age of one hundred. Even their king was only eighty when Vegeta-sai was destroyed, but the longest recorded lifespan was over five hundred… and that one died in battle, too.”

“My great-grandfather, Raditz. He was a pirate,” Bardock chuckled. “The stories say that he died for a woman, too. My oldest brat looked just like him, so I named him after the old womanizer.” He frowned at that and felt a rush of grief fill him at the thought of his oldest son. “Raditz is dead… and Turles and Kakarot. Did any Saiyans survive, Ami?”

Both women sighed and Mako sympathetically squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry, Bardock… but no. There’s no known Saiyan survivors. Maybe some descendants from Kakarot and Vegeta still live on Earth, but… they wouldn’t be Saiyan in the least ten thousand years later,” Ami replied gently.

The computer did its best to translate, and Bardock nodded that he understood. “I would still like to track them down if my eyesight can be restored.” He swallowed and then asked the question that he still wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer to. “Will I ever see again?”

Another squeeze to his hand and the feeling of Koto’s face being placed in it, her head nodding up and down, made him sag in relief. “How long?”

“We have to make my sister, Serenity, cry. And then we can use her tears to cure your blindness,” the queen of Jupiter giggled. “Another one of our sisters is working on it by showing her sappy movies.”

“How long?” He repeated, hoping that it would be soon.

“A few weeks?” Mako managed hesitantly. “I don’t know, Bardock. She’ll ship them here as soon as the vial’s full. A whole dose is approximately twenty drops given over five days, twice a day. And then Serenity’s kingdom, while in the same solar system, is billions of miles out.”

That was the best they could do. He knew it and nodded, then he straightened when he heard a door open and he smelled the man from the day before. ‘Toki,’ Koto had called him. “Mind showing me where the fucking pisser is this time, Toki?” He ground out in annoyance, his mood already dark from his conversation with the queens.

When the computer translated into broken Solarian, Motoki had the courtesy to seem contrite. “Sorry, Bardock.”

“Whatever. Just give me my clothes and show me where my quarters are.”

“Damn, he sure has gotten rude, hasn’t he?” The blonde snorted.

“He found out yesterday that all of his people are dead and just realized now that that meant his _kids_ , too,” Mako hissed back at him, snatching up Bardock’s pants and gently placing them in the Saiyan’s hands. “I’ll show you to a room, Bardock,” she told him gently, followed by a kiss to his forehead. “Get dressed.”

Switching to Lunarian, Ami asked carefully, “Mako, are you sure that nothing happened last night?”

“You have got to be kidding me, Ami. Seriously? Nothing happened, I just feel horrible for Bardock. It’s not fair what’s happened to him. He got blown away by a blast of power and it knocked him ten millennia into the future, where he doesn’t know anyone, all of his people and his planet are gone, and to top it all off, he’s blind! Don’t tell me for one moment that you wouldn’t be trying to make him feel better!”

“Yeah, I would be, but… I think I’d have to draw the line at letting him share my bed. And in the nude, too.”

“You know what, Ami!? I’m a grown fucking woman, and I have no shame in admitting if and when I’ve taken a man to bed, so don’t start! I didn’t fuck him!” She yelled with finality, shutting off her communicator before shoving it into her subspace with a huff.

“Koto?” Bardock asked, having no clue what had been said since they’d switched languages, wondering if he’d done something to anger her. The idea of that… it didn’t sit well with him, not after she’d been so kind to him, and he could clearly smell her anger, embarrassment… and was that a hint of arousal? Hm… had her sister been inquiring about last night once more? The queen handing him his effects definitely smelled like she was interested, but Bardock knew through years of experience that a male couldn’t go on scent alone. A woman needed to be courted a little beforehand, just to feel her out a bit, especially one as strong as her. Women in power seldom took mates on instinct alone; they were forced to make political choices, even if they desired someone of a lower class.

Shit… who was he kidding anyway? It was downright stupid to entertain the idea of mating with a queen, even if she did smell amazing. Telling his beast to shut the hell up, Bardock dressed and used his tail to find Mako, snorting in amusement when the tip of it brushed over a bared breast. “ _Mah’ni_ ,” he said when she jumped and yelped something in Solarian.

“No, you’re fine,” she managed, blushing as she tugged on a shirt, her nipple tingling from where he’d made contact with the soft, thick fur. She gingerly stroked his tail once she was ready, her face growing redder when he closed his eyes in pleasure and purred. “Oh come on, I didn’t pet it that time, Bardock. I was just letting you know I was ready to go.”

“Guess that makes us even since I copped a feel with my tail,” he chuckled, flashing her a little, mischievous grin. “ _Ad_?” He added hopefully. “ _F’ai_?”

Meat? Was that what he meant? He’d said it several times as he’d torn into the ham, so maybe that’s what he was talking about. “ _Gaah-een_?” She asked, not totally sure if she was pronouncing his word for ‘yes’ correctly.

“ _F’ri_ , Koto. _G’in_. _Guh-een_. _G’in_.”

“How you put those pauses in between your syllables is mind-boggling,” she chuckled. She tried the word for ‘yes’ several more times, and even when Bardock indicated that she’d gotten it right, his body language told her that it was just barely close enough. “Don’t give me that shrug, mister,” she giggled. “Or have you forgotten Maaah-Koto?”

Bardock grunted at that but managed another boyish grin. “Jesh?”

“Hahaha… no, not ‘jesh.’ It’s _yes_.”

“Jesh.”

“Yuh. Yyyyuh.”

“Juh.”

“Guess your language doesn’t have the ‘yuh’ sound,” she mused aloud. Yes.”

Bardock sighed and shook his head, unable to make the sound without seeing how her lips and teeth were placed when she made it. “Jesh.”

“Close enough,” she giggled, giving his back a little pat before she proceeded to lead him from the room and down the hall. “ _Gah-een_.”

“ _En’go_ ,” he chuckled. _Close enough._

#########################

“ _F’ai_?” Bardock asked hesitantly as he sniffed the plate of food set in front of him. He smelled meat… he thought so, anyways. But there was other stuff in there, too, possibly vegetables, and he’d never been too thrilled about eating those.

“Eggs,” Mako told him. “It’s an omelet. It’s got veggies in there, sure, but it’s really good. Eat it. _Ad_. Oh, and before I forget, I had someone dig you up a fork,” she giggled as she gently placed the utensil in his right hand.

Bardock gave her a genuine, grateful smile, surprised by her thoughtfulness. Had she known that the fork was similar to what his people used, or had she just guessed? “ _D’in m’yo_ , Koto.” He sniffed the plate again before using his fingers to guide a little of the food to his fork and stuck it in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. “ _F’ri f’ai_ ,” he sighed in disappointment. The texture said ‘meat,’ but the taste said cheese and roughage.

Snagging a raw egg from a carton on the counter, Mako took Bardock’s hand in hers and placed it there. “ _Fah-aah-ee_? Meat?”

“ _F’ri f’ai_.” He tapped the egg with his finger, knowing very well what it was. “ _Sh’ri ka_.” _Liquid bird,_ literally. To emphasize, he stuck a finger in his cup and let the juice drip down his finger. “ _Sh’ri_.” Then he made a flapping motion with his arms. “ _Ka! Ka!_ ”

Mako laughed at that, understanding perfectly. “Liquid chicken, I gotcha! Egg,” she added, tapping it.

“Egg.”

“Hey, you got that one just fine. So long as there’s no ‘yuh’ noises, I guess we’re ok. So… _shh-ree ka_.”

“ _En’go_ ,” he replied with a shrug. “ _Shuh ree ka_. _Sh’ri ka_.”

Trying her best to mimic his tongue placement when he paused between syllables, Mako attempted the word again. “ _Sh’ri ka_.”

“ _En_ ,” he grunted. He sniffed the air then and turned his head towards the sound of frying meat. “ _F’ai. Buh’tir_?” He added with his best pleading little-boy smile.

“Butter?” Mako giggled, knowing he wouldn’t get the joke, but couldn’t help herself. “Butter me up, huh? Is that what you’re trying with a winning smile that a seven-year-old would envy?”

Sensing her amusement, Bardock waggled his brows and his grin became rakish as he heard someone place the fried meat on a plate nearby. His tail was quicker than anyone’s eyes could follow and he snagged it into his lap, then proceeded to play hot potato with a piece of whatever it was that smelled so divine. “ _F’ai **m’yo**_ ,” he purred at her when she tried to grab the plate.

“ _Mee-oh_? Mine?”

“Jesh. Mine. Meeeetuh.”

“Meat.”

“Meat,” Bardock repeated, growling with pleasure as he bit into a piece of what was definitely bacon. “ _Au t’uh f’ai, Koto_?”

She read his gesture and smiled. “Yes, thank you, Bardock.” Mako took the two pieces of bacon that he offered, but his body language made it perfectly clear that it was all she was getting out of him. “ _Duh’een_ … um…?”

“ _M’yo_ ,” he supplied. “ _D’in m’yo_. Hn… tank… joo?”

“Jesh,” she giggled, unable to stop herself from teasing his pronunciation. “Ahem… Maaah-Koto.”

Bardock snorted at that and waggled a piece of bacon in her general direction. “Feh, _sh_. _Gaaaah-eeeeen_ ,” he countered in a high-pitched womanly voice.

With her reduced to giggles and him to little snickers, Motoki had to admit that they looked like they’d been friends for years, sharing some private joke. “Mako-chan, were you going to exercise this morning?”

Both of them stopped laughing at that, and Bardock growled for a second when he sniffed the air and smelled Motoki over the scent of bacon. He was fine, he guessed, since he was a neutral beta male, but he was still ridiculously annoyed with him for not showing him where the bathroom was. Blind warriors on Vegeta-sai would have never been left alone like that in a strange place to fend for themselves. Hell, they were bullies and brutes, but they did show _some_ courtesy to disabled warriors.

“I don’t know,” Mako replied with a shrug when Bardock just growled that one time and went silent. “I can’t very well just leave Bardock here by himself, Toki. Not only would it be rude, it’d be cruel after last night’s episode.”

“Well, the training room’s empty for you for the next couple hours if you change your mind,” Motoki said diplomatically, not wanting to anger her after he’d been such a thoughtless ass. “And I really am sorry that I didn’t think to show him the bathroom, Mako.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I’m just going to keep him close for a few days and let him get comfortable before I start leaving him alone. At least let him get a few words of our language.”

#####################

Bardock didn’t know what to think when he was led into a room that smelled slightly like sweat, exertion and a hint of anger, but when Koto sat him down in a chair and made the motion on his shoulders for him to stay put, he did. He simply focused on the sounds around him, the sound of Makoto breathing and the movement of air around her.

It sounded and smelled like she was training, maybe, and Bardock itched to join in, but he wasn’t sure if he would be breaking some sort of protocol, or possibly offending her by trying to work through a few katas.

So he slid to the floor to sit, maneuvering his legs into the lotus position, and meditated for the first time in a decade. Bardock had long reached a peaceful state when he was snapped out of it by the sound of sarcasm in Makoto’s voice, followed by the same and a touch of smug surety to a male’s, but he was merely confused until he heard the first smacking of a fist on flesh.

His beast was in total, utter control then, and before he could stop himself, Bardock had sniffed out the male and had him pinned to the mat on the floor, growling down at him menacingly.

Makoto’s voice was the only thing he could hear beyond the blood rushing through his head during his beast’s pure rage, and she gripped his shoulder as she shook him, trying to get him to release the other man. “Bardock, please,” she whispered, “it’s ok, really it is. _Buh’tir_ ,” she added as an afterthought, her hand travelling to the fingers wrapped around a pulsing throat.

Her eyes went wide when a few guards ran into the room, but she held up her other hand to stop them. “It’s alright! I’ve got it handled!” She shouted.

“But Majesty, he’s choking out Yamcha!”

“No shit!” She snapped. She pulled at his fingers again, but when he just growled at her and they tightened, Mako thought fast, briefly winced at what she was about to do…

…and grabbed his tail.

Bardock’s spine went straight and stiff as a board the moment he felt her fingers caressing a line up to the base of his tail, fluffing through it gently, and his body trembled in response, a rough purr erupting from his chest. “K—Koto…?”

“Get him to the infirmary,” she told the guards the moment Bardock’s hand released her sparring partner. “I’ll handle Bardock,” she added when a few of them hesitated to leave her, her thumb still stroking lightly at the base of his tail, making him purr even louder.

Once they were alone, Mako released him… and sighed in exasperation when she found herself pinned to the training room floor. “ _Mah’ni_?” She managed when he growled down at her, his chest still vibrating in a purr of desire. She knew that’s what it was; there was no mistaking the pulsing length pressing against her stomach through their clothing, and when he ground out her name through clenched teeth and rocked it into her a single time, she couldn’t help but lick her lips. Damn, it had been a long time since she’d gotten laid, and the very idea of getting hot and sweaty with this ridiculously sexy male on the training mats had her getting a little wet. “Bardock, I had to stop you,” she barely managed. “You were going to kill Yamcha.”

Another rocking of his hips, combined with his nose brushing down the length of her throat had Mako biting down on her lip to keep herself from making any sort of encouraging noise, and she fought down the urge to wrap a leg around his waist and move upwards in response. “Bardock, no,” she finally whispered. “ _Fuh-ree_.”

That was the magic word, apparently; the moment he rolled off of her, the queen of Jupiter went limp and let out a shuddering sigh of mixed relief and disappointment, but she opened her eyes when she heard him growl down at her. He was kneeling beside her, his face a picture of pure confusion and frustration, and Mako sighed in sympathy as she sat up and took his hand in hers. “Bardock, I’m sorry.”

“Ami,” he ground out.

Mako blinked at that, then blushed; apparently he had more than a few things to say to her if he was asking for a translator, and she had a fair idea that none of them were going to be positive. But she pulled out her communicator and dialed her sister as he’d asked, and when Ami questioned Mako’s disheveled appearance, the older of the two just shrugged a little. “Just get the thingy to translate?” She whined. “Please?”

“Alright, it’s up,” Ami sighed. “Something tells me I don’t want to know what just happened, but I’m sure I’m about to find out.”

Hearing a few words in Saiyan as Ami talked, Bardock growled and found the communicator in Mako’s hand, snatching it up. “Ami. Tell her not to touch my tail ever again.”

Blinking in surprise at the blind warrior, Ami shrugged. “You tell her.”

Marveling at how he managed to pin her on the spot with just his bluish, cloudy eyes, Mako swallowed and blushed when she heard the computer translating. “Do not touch my tail… you touch… fuck you into floor.” _If you touch my tail again, I will fuck you into the floor._ Oh yeah… message received, alright. But unfortunately for him, she had one of her own.

“Well, what was I supposed to do!” She yelled back. “You were going to kill my fucking sparring partner, Bardock! And the only thing I could think of to stop you was to either grab your tail or put you through a wall!”

“He hit you,” Bardock growled back once he’d pieced the computer’s broken translation together.

“We were sparring! Didn’t you ever spar with female warriors on your planet!?” Mako snapped.

“We always pulled our punches with Fasha!” He replied hotly. “We never hit her at full force! Even if you _are_ stronger than all the men on this planet, you’re still female and should be respected as a bringer of life!”

Mako’s eyes went wide at that, and while she appreciated the gallant notion, she was still a warrior, damn it! She didn’t need to be coddled like a baby! She managed to calm down a little as she reminded herself that their customs were different and he couldn’t be held at fault for that.

“Hm… I wonder what Haruka would have to say about that,” Ami mused on the other end. “I think you’d learn quickly not to pull your punches with her, Bardock. Or if you sparred with Mako, maybe that would show you that you don’t need to pull them with her?”

“I will not hit Koto,” Bardock replied firmly.

“Why?” Ami and Mako asked at the same time.

Bardock’s reply was a full sentence, but the only thing the computer could respond with was, “my beast,” and when the computer told him that the women didn’t understand, he sighed and shrugged, rubbing at the bridge of his nose.

“I think it’s something to do with his culture?” Ami supplied. “Maybe because you saved his life? The research I’ve done on Saiyans so far has yielded a couple of things about blood debts. Hm… Mako-chan, is your computer still updating?”

“Yeah, why?” She replied as she continued to puzzle over his response, studying the confused, exasperated expression on his face.

Ami just huffed in annoyance, and after some clicking on her keyboard, she nodded. “I just ordered you a brand-new, up-to-date computer, Mako-chan. It’ll be there tonight. Ah! Don’t start telling me it’s wasteful! It’s not wasteful if you’re going to wind up giving it to him to use, right?”

“Ugh… fine. Thank you, Ami-chan.”

“Tank… joo,” Bardock added as well, giving the other queen a dip of his head in respect.

“Ah, you don’t have to thank me, Bardock. After all, I’m fairly amused by the fact that you’ll now be able to yell at her whenever you want!”

###########################

“I’m sorry,” he heard her say in his language for the millionth time that afternoon, while he used the fork she’d found for him and slowly ate something that was a delicious mixture of meat and potatoes. He suspected that she’d cooked it herself, too, but he wasn’t sure if she’d done it as an apology or just because she liked to cook.

“Koto, if you say ‘I’m sorry’ one more time, I swear I’m going to make you sorry,” he snorted as he located her arm with his tail and wrapped it around the soft flesh, giving it a brief squeeze. He left it looped there, however, in a possessive form of trust, while he wondered just what his beast was doing. Damn it, if it wasn’t reacting to her as a potential mate; it wanted to protect her, it was refusing to hurt her, and whenever he sensed that she was upset, he felt a fluttering urge to make it all better. _Ugh… you and the woman are both confusing the hell out of me,_ he remarked silently to his beast, who was only purring lightly in contentment.

That purring ceased when he scented Motoki, though, who smelled like he was pretty angry. “Don’t you touch her,” Bardock growled out in warning. “I swear, things are going to get violent if another male fucking touches her today. I don’t think my beast can take much more of it.”

Motoki’s intuition saved him right then, and he drew back a hand he’d been about to place on Mako’s arm. “Word has it that he got pissed about you sparring?”

“No, he got pissed because his people pull their punches with women… and we don’t,” Mako replied, trying to keep her tone light.

“Heh, that’s actually pretty noble, Mako. Give the man some credit. He was defending you,” Toki replied seriously. “And with that brought to light, I suppose I don’t mind you spending so much time with him. Though… I will warn you…” He dropped his voice into a whisper then, not wanting anyone who understood Solarian to overhear. “…Rubeus landed today and is already asking for an audience.”

Mako whined at that and thumped her forehead on the table. “Seriously? I mean, shit, Nephrite took the hint five centuries ago, why won’t Rubeus!?”

“Apparently, putting his head through a piece of sheetrock wasn’t enough disincentive, Majesty,” Toki snorted in reply. “Shall I tell him you’re occupied? After all, you are nursing a wounded diplomat back to health… technically.”

The queen of Jupiter’s lips twitched up at that and she giggled a little, fixing her eyes on Bardock… who was clearly listening to everything, trying to glean something out of their words that he could understand. “That’s not a bad idea. Tell Rubeus that the diplomat from Vegeta-sai was wounded when he crash landed in the Great Eye, and that he’ll only tolerate my presence. It’s _not_ a lie, after all.”

########################

Bardock wasn’t sure why the queen didn’t hand him off to a male when the time for bed came, but he wasn’t going to deny that he was very pleased with the way she led him from her own room and walked him back and forth to another door nearby, patiently letting him count the steps. “ _P’ue m’yo_?” He finally asked when she led him into the new room.

“ _G’in_. “ _M’yo_ … er, what’s the—“

“ _T’au_ ,” Bardock responded, knowing what she’d meant to say, pointing towards her room for emphasis. “ _P’ue t’au_.” Then he gestured to the area around them. “ _P’ue m’yo_.” He couldn’t help the grin that followed and gestured to his groin, knowing she’d likely understand.

“Heh, bathroom’s over here, big guy,” Mako laughed, taking his hand to lead him to the door. “Just as big as mine, too, since I put you in what would normally be the king’s suite. Not like it’s going to get used _anytime_ soon, though,” she added with a chuckle. “Tongues sure are gonna waggle when people hear about you sleeping here, but I think I can handle it. Maybe it’ll get Rubeus to just leave without even demanding an audience.”

“ _Hi’nah_ ,” Bardock said in annoyance, holding his finger to his lips. “I’m trying to count, woman, so stop talking.”

“Well, _sooorry_ , Your Majesty.”

Noting her light sarcasm, Bardock just snorted in her direction and found the toilet, then began counting, gently moving her aside when he nearly ran into her. Damn, this was a big room! Nineteen steps just from the bathroom door to the bed! Judging from that alone, it had to be some sort of royal suite, perhaps meant for the queen’s mate or children… but since she didn’t have any, she’d given it to him to accommodate his needs. “ _D’in m’yo_ , Koto,” he rumbled once he was done checking things out and he sat on the edge of the massive bed. “ _M’kor_ ,” he added as he removed his boots, followed by pillowing his face on his hands.

“Sleep,” she supplied before stepping forward to kiss him on the cheek. “Good night.”

“ _En m’kor, Koto_.”

 _Good sleep, Koto_. Or ‘sleep well’, she supposed—the Saiyan language seemed to be extremely simple, from what she’d heard of it; a few words doubled for others, it just depended upon the context they were being used in. But then, Ami had said that they had numerous words for other things, such as fighting and death. Hopefully that new computer would arrive before she sacked out for the evening, and she could set it up to translate for them and she’d be able to understand him better come morning.


	3. Chapter 3

Bardock sighed as he slowly ate the breakfast that Motoki had brought him, and he wondered where Makoto was and what in the hell was taking her so long. Not that he minded, but she’d never left him alone this long during the last four days since she’d shown him to his own room.

                He continued to eat slowly as he silently worried, and when he was halfway through with the plate of eggs and lots and _lots_ of bacon, he heard the queen’s voice, sounding awfully agitated as she went back and forth with a male, whose voice Bardock didn’t recognize.

                Both of them sounded absolutely livid with one another and Bardock stood, using his nose and his tail to locate the both of them and snarl softly when he sensed the male standing close enough to Makoto to strike her.

                “Fine then! You’ve been avoiding me for days, Mako! And you say that you’re taking care of some diplomat from a planet I’ve never even heard of, but I have yet to even see him! So where is he, huh!? Or have you been lying to me this entire time!?”

                “I haven’t been lying, Rubeus! Dear gods, you’re such a fucking asshole! And you know what, if you want to accuse me of lying one more fucking time, I’ll meet you in the training room and take the insult out of your ass in payment!” Mako shouted back. Unable to stop herself when his hands erupted into flames, she shoved him with the strength of Jupiter and sent him slamming into the nearest wall.

                “Mako, you’re going to _pay_ for that!” He shouted as he stood and fire began to course between his palms.

                “Oh, bring it, you sissy fucking bitch,” she snarled as she waved a hand and was suddenly clothed in her Senshi uniform. “I will take your ass out, Rubeus, and you _know_ it.” She let the power of her planet fill her and was wrapped in lightning when he struck, but the first fireball met her powers with a crackle and a whoosh as the fire went out and she retaliated smoothly with a shock that would have taken him out had he not dodged. “That’s right, Rubeus, you’d better run,” she ground out, but when he flung another wave of fire at her and she prepared to block it, she yelped in surprise when a solid form darted in front of her and took the blow, his aura glowing gold as it surrounded him.

                “Try it again and I will bury your ass,” Bardock snarled in Saiyan, his chest rumbling steadily in a warning growl as he tracked Rubeus by scent, his ki crackling around him violently.

                “Who’s this, Mako? A new boytoy?” Rubeus snorted. “Well, he’s certainly not hideous, I’ll give you that. But blonde? Really? I’d always thought you more into redheads.”

                Blonde? Mako blinked, but she didn’t really have to study him to see that Rubeus was correct; Bardock’s hair was standing up in a spikier-then-usual style, and his hair was as golden as the aura of immense spiritual power surrounding him. Maybe that’s how the warriors on his planet fought? And maybe their hair became golden, sort of like the way her clothing changed whenever she transformed. Hell, even his tail was golden, she noted as she looked him over from behind. “Bardock, I’ve got this,” she finally said. “Trust me, I’ve kicked Rubeus’s ass on several occasions through the years.”

                “Bardock?” Rubeus inquired. “So this is the diplomat? Looks more like a warrior to me,” he commented as he powered down and stepped forward to look him over.

                “Koto, if he comes any closer, I will rip his fucking head from his shoulders and shove it up his ass,” Bardock warned softly in Saiyan, forming a ki ball in his hand as he continued to growl in warning. “No,” he finally managed in Solarian when he felt Mako shifting behind him, preparing to step forward. “Koto, no.”

                “You’re lucky he didn’t rip you to pieces, Rubeus,” Mako chuckled darkly. “You should’ve seen what he did to my sparring partner last week. Apparently his kind don’t take well to men who hit women. Even if you _do_ hit like a girl.” With a comforting touch to his shoulder, she gently took the hand holding the ki blast by the wrist. “Bardock, it’s ok.”

                “No, Koto,” he growled softly. “No okay. _F’ri en_.”

                “Don’t make me grab your tail again,” she chuckled as she merely poked the base of it and he shivered in response.

                “Koto, I swear by all that is holy, if you touch my tail again, I will fuck you senseless right in front everyone,” he replied, unable to hide a hint of a smirk from his lips.

 Heh, maybe that’s what she wanted? They _had_ grown surprisingly close over the last few days, exchanging words in both languages and joking over each other’s pronunciation. And that computer Ami had sent had only made him realize just how sharp the queen of Jupiter was as she’d told him stories about her younger years, even though the device lacked battery time and required charging after less than an hour of translating.

                Another gently spoken request for him to power down had him relenting, and Bardock sighed and nodded, letting his ki return to normal despite the power high he was experiencing. Apparently nearly dying had really given his ki a boost, he’d never felt so powerful in all his life!

                But as his ki sank back down, he grunted as he sensed the other male powering back up, but was too slow to stop the blast of fire and didn’t have enough time to raise his ki to defend himself. But the expected blow never came, and he gaped as he scented Makoto right in front of him, panting heavily, her body trembling with rage. “Koto…? Koto!” He snapped, worried despite the fact that he didn’t smell any blood.

                “Rubeus, if you ever strike out at anyone under my protection ever again, I will execute you on the spot. Now get the fuck out of my kitchens and send _your_ people to clean up the mess,” Mako ordered roughly, lowering her arms from in front of her and giving them a shake to stop them from trembling in a mixture of rage and fear. That bastard would have killed Bardock with that blast, for sure, but thankfully Mako knew Rubeus’s tactics all too well and would never, ever drop her shields in his presence.

                She sighed when she felt arms spin her around and saw the panic written all over Bardock’s face as he used his hands to check her over, obviously searching for any signs of injury. “Bardock, I’m _fine_ ,” she sighed.

                “Uh-huh, just a diplomat, sure,” Rubeus sneered from the doorway. “He sure is touchy-feely for being only a diplomat, Makoto. You sure you’re not fucking him?”

                A string of curses and a bolt of lightning flew from her, and she grinned savagely when the shot hit home and Rubeus fell, still alive and concious, but twitching all the same. “He’s blind, you fucking asshole. And whom I’m fucking is none of your godsdamned business, anyway. Now get the fuck out of my kitchen!” She screamed at him.

                Mako unthinkingly winced when Bardock’s hands reached her forearms, but before she could pull away, Bardock was gripping her firmly and sniffing the flesh, his mouth turned down in a frown. “Bardock, I’m _fine_ ,” she sighed.

                “You were injured saving my life, woman, so don’t even _start_ with that ‘I good’ shit!” He snapped out at her. “Toki!” He bellowed.

                The queen of Jupiter blushed and hung her head a little when Motoki came running and Bardock began barking out orders in Saiyan, releasing her to make quick little hand gestures. But when she tried to slip away silently, Motoki cleared his throat and Bardock was there in a flash, moving with a speed she’d never witnessed before. “Um… hi?” She squeaked out.

                “Koto—“

                That was the only word she understood during the forty-five second tirade he went on, and Makoto was positive that he was swearing at her vehemently and creatively, describing just what he would do to her if she didn’t sit her ass down and let him dress the burns on her arms. “But… but they aren’t that bad, Bardock,” she whispered softly, her eyes darting from side to side to try and find some means of getting away and out of everyone’s line of sight. If word got out that she’d let a blind man push her around and coddle her like a child—never mind that he was fast as hell and a lot more powerful than she’d previously thought, he was _still_ blind—Rei would never, _ever_ let her live it down.

                Her meek little protest made him chuckle darkly as he hefted her tightly against him and carried her back to the table he’d been sitting at, placing her gently in his seat. “ _Hi’nah_ ,” he snorted when she tried to say something else. “ _Au a’hir_ , Koto. No…” Damn, what was that word? “Moof. No moof.”

                “ _A’hir_ is move?” She asked, trying to get him to wipe that furious look from his face.

                “ _F’ri_ , Koto. _A’hir_ ish—“ He lowered his hands to her arms and touched them lightly, pulling them back when he felt the heat in them and she winced at the contact.

                “ _Hurt_ ,” she supplied. “ _A’hir_ is ‘hurt.’”

                “ _G’in. En_ , Koto,” he replied gruffly. “Moof ish _h’tir_.”

                “Gah-eeen?” She replied with a slightly forced giggle in an effort to get him to lose the frown. Mako felt a little better when his lips flickered into a smirk for a brief moment, but apparently Bardock was all business and wouldn’t be swayed. “Can we please not do this down here at least?” Mako hissed out, knowing that Motoki would at least get her back on this one thing. “Please, the servants are staring and I don’t like the looks I’m getting. I’m supposed to be the tough, undefeatable queen of Jupiter, and having them see me like this is unsettling. I should be walking the fuck around, strutting like a rooster, crowing about how Rubeus hits like a girl!”

                Motoki laughed at that, leaning against the wall for support while his sides shook from the effort it took not to cackle loudly and draw more attention. “You are so vain, Mako-chan,” he finally giggled, tears streaming down his face from laughing so hard. “I suppose it didn’t occur to you that they aren’t staring at _you_. They’re staring at Bardock,” he whispered conspiratorially, “and they’re wondering three things. One, why in the hell you rushed to protect him and vice-versa. Two, why he freaked the fuck out over some minor third-degree burns that would make the queen of Mars call you a sissy for even wrapping… and three.” He grinned broadly at that and Mako’s emerald eyes narrowed; clearly, this third thing was the most entertaining.

                “Just spit it out,” she snarled softly.

                “Three… they’re wondering what’s going on between the two of you that you’d actually _let_ him boss you around like this.”

                “Toki… fuck off,” Mako growled as soon as she could actually voice a reply.

                “Here, Majesty,” one of the girls from the kitchen said solemnly, but the little grin on her face completely belied her tone of voice.

                Mako snatched the gauze and the ointment up but shot the girl a venomous look, and was pleased when the maid or cook or whatever she was scurried out of her line of sight. “Here, Bardock, let me see, I got some gauze and— _fine_ ,” she sighed when he automatically grabbed them and growled at her in a warning to let him take care of her injury.

                “ _F’ri h’tir_ , Koto,” Bardock grunted for good measure as he carefully spread ointment over the warm spots he could feel under his fingertips, taking care to not put any pressure on the blisters. He was pleased when she listened and didn’t fight him, but equally troubled by the fact that she’d just saved his life… again. He definitely owed her a blood debt now, there was no arguing with his beast about it. The only problem was figuring out how to repay it. “Rubeeeeush,” he finally said as he was using his dexterous fingers to feel out how to wrap her arm with the protective gauze. “ _M’eh a’hir_.”

                “Ugh… no, Bardock. Just… just let me handle it. Trust me, I’m gonna kick his ass for firing on you, but it needs to be handled delicately, ok?” Mako sighed when he growled at her, his tail thrashing about angrily. “Computer?” She suggested.

##########################

                “No,” Mako sighed once they were in his room and the computer had been opened by an irate Bardock, who immediately demanded that she lead him to Rubeus or he’d find him by scent. “You have to understand, Bardock. Rubeus and I… it’s almost like a game. The last time this sort of thing happened, I put his head through a wall. Literally. Before then, he dunked my head in a trough full of water and I semi-electrocuted myself. Him and I have been squabbling for _years_ , and we just constantly have to one-up the other.”

                Bardock rubbed the bridge of his nose as his tail thrashed about in pure anger, and his words came out as a growl when the computer finished translating her explanation. “So today was normal behavior for the both of you?”

                “More or less… until he fired on you,” Mako replied with a little growl of her own. “And for that, I _am_ going to make him pay. I just don’t know how, yet. He’s half Lunarian and half Martian and he’s a royal diplomat for Rei, so I can’t just kill him like I want to. While Rei would tell me to fry him, Rubeus’s Lunarian family would raise a bit of a stink… his brother, Diamond... he’s more than a bit of a dick.”

                Bardock blinked in surprise and wished he could see her face so he could study her expression. She wanted to kill Rubeus for trying to hurt _him_ , but not for the attack on her own person? Not only that, but he was reminded yet again that she’d thrown herself in front of him and had taken the blast, burning her arms as a result. “ _Ch’teru_ ,” he mumbled to himself.

                “Blood debt,” the computer translated.

                “Huh?” Mako asked in confusion.

                “Nothing,” Bardock replied, waving her off. Hell, how could he even possibly repay a blood debt anyway!? The only possessions he had were what she’d given him, and on top of it all, he was blind! He would think it over, though, he decided. His honor would allow nothing less, but he was going to need to get creative in regards to paying her back. Perhaps once his sight was restored, he could offer his services as a warrior and a guard. If he was stuck there, he’d prefer to stay close to her anyway.

                She was safe. He could trust her with his life, and frankly, his beast was gnawing at the bars of its cage more than just a little at the thought of leaving her. “Koto, from now on, if you want to spar, I will spar with you,” he said thoughtfully.

                Mako bit her tongue when she nearly pointed out that he was blind, mentally slapping herself for even thinking such a thing. Bardock had proven more than once that he didn’t need his eyes to see an opponent; she’d watched him track Rubeus across the kitchen using only his nose and tail, and he was clearly a dominant warrior when he powered up. “Ok. Deal,” Mako agreed after a long silence. “But none of that ‘I won’t hit you because you’re a girl’ stuff. I ain’t no sissy, Bardock.”

                Ugh, shit she was right! How were they supposed to spar if he couldn’t even bring himself to bruise her? “My beast won’t allow me to hit you,” he rumbled thoughtfully. “It is literally impossible, Koto. But we’ll think of something and see if we can’t work around it. Yes?”

                “Hey, up to you, Bardock. Just don’t whine when I hand you your ass on a silver platter,” she giggled.

########################

                Bardock had refused to spar with her that day, insisting that she be fully healed before he did so, and they spent the rest of the day just chatting, then walking around and being lazy, simply enjoying one another’s company. And when the time came for bed, Bardock chuckled as he snagged Mako’s hand and kissed the back of it. “ _Ve’sh m’yo_ ,” he said smoothly, giving her a little wink. “ _En m’kor_.”

                Makoto couldn’t help but giggle at that and leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. “Night, Bardock. Sweet dreams.”

                Bardock had a sappy little smile on his face when he retired for the evening after a long, hot shower, and he sighed in contentment as he listened to Mako humming something from the next room, her voice coming through the thin door between them. It had been behind a bookcase and he’d discovered it the day before, and with Mako’s permission, he’d moved it.

                Not like he needed it there or anything for easier access to her suite, but it was nice knowing that she was only a few feet away through the door should she need protection or help.

                Despite Makoto’s wishes for his dreams to be sweet, Bardock’s were anything but, and soon after he drifted off, he was tossing and turning in bed, growling in Saiyan and fighting phantoms in his nightmares.

                First it was Frieza, who slaughtered his entire squad before his eyes while Bardock stood caged in ki bands, unable to do anything, and he screamed himself hoarse in the dream, shouting out to Toma and Fasha as they fell. Then it was Romayna, fighting some sort of being that neither of them could see, and he knew it was the cancer that had killed her while she was pregnant with Kakarot, taking her life just after they’d removed him from her womb and put the child in the incupod.

                And then it was Raditz and Turles, his boys—the boys he’d raised—and it was Frieza that killed them as well while Bardock screamed in rage and helpless tears rolled down his face as he begged for Frieza to take him instead, just anything but his boys.

                Kakarot was next, slaughtered in the incupod, and Bardock wept silently as he cradled the son he’d seen only once in his arms, his little lifeless body bloody and cold.

                “Make it stop!” He shouted out loud and in the dream.

                It seemed for a moment that the gods were listening, because then Makoto was there, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly. He couldn’t see her in the nightmare, couldn’t put a face to the smell of her, but it was her, without a doubt. He relaxed and wept into her shoulder as she whispered comfort to him in her language, his tail wrapping tightly and possessively around her waist.

                But that comfort was short-lived when he felt heat surrounding him and she screamed in pain, jerking as she burned to death and begged for him to help her.

                And at a loss for what he could do, Bardock screamed with her as she burned in his arms.

##############################

                Mako yelped and shot out of bed when she was violently shaken from sleep, the cold and clammy hands on her shoulders like vices, and so shocked by the aggressive awakening, she zapped the hands hanging onto her.

                Her panicking alarm clock wasn’t discouraged though, and she blinked in the inky pitch when someone breathing heavily and clearly terrified shook her again. “K—Koto!?”

                “Bardock?” She asked groggily, relaxing a little at the sound of his voice. Gods, he sounded absolutely hoarse, like someone had rubbed his throat with sandpaper! “What’s up, honey?” Mako pressed, feeling around a little to draw the covers back and rise up a bit. Her hand went to his face, but when she touched his cheek, she gasped in surprise. He was cold as ice, but his face was soaked in tears, and if she wasn’t mistaken, he was still crying.

                Hugging him immediately, Mako began running her fingers through his hair as soothingly as possible, her arms tight around his broad shoulders. “Bardock, tell me what’s wrong, honey. What happened?”

                Bardock just shook his head frantically while she continued to whisper sweet little things in his ear and she smoothed her hands up and down his back. At least, until he realized that she’d been doing the exact same thing in the dream just before she’d burst into flames. She’d even been wearing the exact same gown that he could feel under his hands and against his chest and stomach, and his hands trembled as he broke awake from her to yank it over her head and toss it away.

                “Bardock? Bardock, what the hell are you doing!?” Mako asked insistently, trying to pull away when he suddenly began to run his hands over every inch of bared skin. She gasped when his calloused palms boldly ran down her breasts and her thighs, but when he popped back up after running his fingers over her calves and feet and began to examine her arms just as carefully, she understood and relaxed. “You dreamt that something bad happened to me, didn’t you, honey? Well, I’m fine, I promise,” she added when he found the healing burns on her arms from earlier that day.

                The Saiyan drew her into his arms again and held her tightly once he was sure her previous injuries were the only burns marring her flawless skin, and as she continued to coo and soothe him in her language, he gradually relaxed enough to speak. “ _Mah’ni_ ,” he whispered.

                “ _R’en… m’kor?”_ She asked, hoping he’d understand.

                Bardock did understand, but he merely shook his head, unwilling to release her to go get his computer to translate. “It was like the dream was telling me that every single one of their deaths was my fault… and really, they were,” he breathed shakily. “I couldn’t save Romayna from her illness. No matter how hard I tried to convince our king that Frieza was coming, I couldn’t save our people. And I was gone and thrown into the future and couldn’t do a thing to save my sons. And now… it’s like the dream is telling me that there is no way to save you, either. It makes me wonder if the curse the Kanassians placed on me really ever left when Frieza killed me,” he ended in a fearful whisper. “Gods… what if it’s the truth? What if something is going to happen and I won’t be able to stop it?” He gasped out, his arms tightening around her to the point that she couldn’t breathe.

                “Bardock—need to breathe, honey,” Mako whispered, grateful when he apologized softly and loosened his hold. She reached out to the side then and found her discarded gown, but when she motioned to put it back on, he stopped her with a fast shake of his head and wrenched it out of her hands. “Bardock… not that I mind being naked in bed with an equally naked and gorgeous man, but I have a feeling that you’re going to wind up staying the night. So I’d be a little more comfortable if I had some clothes on, ok?”

                “No,” he grunted. When she shivered, he realized that she was probably saying that she was cold, and he nuzzled her throat apologetically before maneuvering them both beneath the covers, her body held tightly to his. “ _Mah’ni_ , Koto _m’yo_ ,” he breathed in her ear, his fingertips whispering gently down her spine. “If the dream is real, I’ll never let it happen,” he told her even though she couldn’t understand him. “I owe you my life, and if that is how I must fulfill the blood debt, I will give up mine for yours without hesitation.”

                He sounded so downright dark and solemn that Mako looked up at him in the pitch, her fingers gently tracing his face and brushing away the remainder of his tears. “Bardock, I don’t know what you’re saying, but I promise you that I’m alright. And you are, too. I won’t let anything bad happen to you, I promise. Ok?” She craned her neck then and brushed her lips over his, sealing the vow with a kiss and hoping to comfort him at the same time. “Sleep, now. _M’kor_ , Bardock.”

                He was slightly ashamed thirty minutes later when he heard her singing something softly as she continued to soothingly pet him, kissing his cheeks or his lips on occasion, and knew without a doubt that she was trying to sing him to sleep. Her voice wasn’t the best, he noted silently, but it had a calming quality to it that relaxed his beast enough for him to shut his cloudy eyes. “Koto _m’yo_ ,” he mumbled, nuzzling his face deep into her thick hair. “ _D’in m’yo_.”

                Combined with her scent, the singing did the trick, and Mako sighed in relief when she felt him grow a little heavier against her, signaling that he’d finally dozed off.

                It wasn’t difficult for her to do that same; his scent and the feeling of being held securely to his chest like some sort of favorite stuffed toy made her feel safe, and Mako found herself dozing as well within minutes.

                But when she woke eight hours later, the queen of Jupiter was confused when she found herself naked, tangled up in another set of equally nude arms and legs. Then the events of the night before came back to her and she flushed in slight embarrassment, turning an even brighter red when she shifted a bit and felt a hard cock pressing into her mound. “Oh boy,” she choked out, followed by what could only be a nervous giggle. “ _Big_ boy,” she amended.

                Bardock muttered something in his sleep and his purr started up then, and Mako couldn’t help but laugh when his hands slid down her sides, his callouses tickling her. “Bardock…! Hee… tickles! Cut it out! _Hi’nah_!”

                “Hmph… Koto?” He rumbled groggily. It was his turn to blush when he felt his arousal pulse and jump in response to her squirming, and his cheeks grew as bright as his headband when his tail slid around her waist and she giggled again. Oh, he was tickling her! “ _Mah’ni_ , Koto,” he said, parting from her just as quickly as the words slipped from his mouth.

                “Nah, you’re ok!” Mako giggled, pecking him lightly on the mouth at the sight of how crimson his face had grown. “ _Au en_?” She asked nonchalantly as she slipped from the bed and drew on a robe. “ _En m’kor_?” She added seriously when he grunted in response.

                “ _G’in_ , Koto. _D’in m’yo_. Joo?” He inquired.

                “Best sleep I’ve had in a long time,” she admitted, but only because he wouldn’t understand her. Something about his alluring, musky scent aroused her and calmed her at the same time, and she found herself wondering if perhaps she was more than just a little attracted to him. Sure, he was gorgeous, but something told her that it was more than just his looks that were drawing her in. “ _Ad_?” She asked with a shaky, slightly nervous smile that she was grateful he couldn’t see.

                “ _F’ri_. _Ji’shi_ ,” he replied, waving at her before clenching his fist and holding it up.

                “Oh, spar? Sure!” Mako said brightly, deciding to forgo a shower since she’d be getting sweaty. “Go on, go get dressed, I’ll meet you in a minute!”

                Bardock was waiting for her, fully dressed in his armor instead of some of the clothes that Toki had found for him, and dwelling on her previous thoughts of him, Mako couldn’t help but appreciate the way he looked dressed for battle. “Any other woman would have tried to eat you alive by now,” she mumbled under her breath.

                He hid the fact that he’d heard her and partially understood, but Bardock couldn’t stop a tiny smirk from gracing his mouth at the compliment. Was she interested…? Nah, she was probably just appreciating the view; he knew he looked good and was used to women admiring him whenever he landed on an alien planet. “ _Ji’shi_ , Koto _m’yo_?” He drawled absently, coloring slightly when he realized that he’d uttered a term of endearment reserved for those interested in courting. Damn it, he’d called her ‘his’ yesterday, too, hadn’t he? Fuck it, she likely didn’t know what in the hell he’d said or what it meant, so it wasn’t a big deal.

                Looping his tail around her wrist automatically, he hesitated as he thought about the implications of that as well, but followed her silently as he mulled it over. He trusted her. He clearly didn’t want anyone threatening her or causing her harm. And his beast had made it crystal clear that he wouldn’t harm her, either.

                The thought of his beast made him inwardly groan; that little bastard was definitely attracted to her and more than just a little aroused by her scent and her presence. _Huh… would I have felt the pull for her if I was able to make eye contact?_ He wondered to himself as they turned a corner. He wished that he had something to compare it to, but he and Romayna had pairbonded during a full moon and it had been a heat of the moment coupling when he’d been only seventeen. There had been no pull, just a physical attraction for each other that was more common on Vegeta-sai than the rare, legendary jerk in one’s chest or stomach when a warrior met his soul mate. 

                He was about to think more deeply on the subject when the queen’s voice broke him out of his inner thoughts, and judging by the scent in the air, they had reached their destination. Oh well, he’d have plenty of time for thinking of such things later on.


	4. Chapter 4

Mako had gone back to get the computer just in case and set it to the side with the translating program pulled up, and as she led Bardock to the center of the training room, she eyed him warily. “You sure want to do this, Bardock?”

                “Jesh, Koto. _Ji’shi_ ,” he replied, tipping her a wink when the computer said “friendly spar.” You scared?” He added in Saiyan.

                “Fuck no,” Mako chuckled darkly, taking a fighting stance, legs spread wide as she shifted into her Senshi uniform. “So… no ki and no lightning? Or all out?”

                “Hand-to-hand,” he replied, then waited for the computer before speaking again. “I’ll only hit you lightly, Koto. It probably won’t even be enough to bruise. You hit me with all you’ve got so I can find out what I’m up against. You won’t hurt me,” he added quickly when she made a slight noise of displeasure.

                “Alright, but you asked for it,” Mako sighed. Without waiting another moment, she jumped in and made contact on the very first hit, snapping his face to the side and making a growl erupt from his throat. But when she hesitated and moved to check him, he grabbed her by the arm and used a throw that had her on her back, gasping for the air that had been knocked out of her. “Damn it… that hit like a truck.”

                It was Bardock’s turn to be concerned and he frowned. “ _Au en_ , Koto _m’yo_?” He asked softly.

                “Are you ok, Koto-mine?” The computer asked.

                Mako blushed upon hearing that possessive usage of her name as she pulled herself to her feet and regarded him slowly. He was much more adept than she’d given him credit as she watched his head move slightly whenever she shifted and then began to circle him; he was obviously tracking her by scent and sound. “You hit like a girl, Bardock,” she chuckled after he’d darted in and landed a few punches while she blocked, only to dance back out again after a few seconds.

                “I won’t hit you harder, Koto,” he insisted. Even when she moved back in and began to hit and kick like he was her worst enemy, Bardock only countered lightly if he wasn’t blocking her outright, and he grinned when she let out a sound of frustration and slugged him in the jaw. “And to be honest, Koto… you also hit like a girl.”

                “I _am_ a girl!” She snapped before reacting with her powers and throwing him into a wall with a lightning bolt. Mako gasped the moment it left her hand, though, and she was cradling him to her as he trembled from the effects of the electricity, checking his pulse to find it erratic. “Bardock, I am so sorry! I lost my temper and—“

                “ _M’eh en_ , Koto,” Bardock rasped, cracking a tiny smirk for her benefit. “And I take it back,” he added roughly. “You do not hit like a girl. At all… even if you’re definitely dressed like one,” he chuckled as he felt her nearly bare thighs against his arm. Damn, if that wasn’t a short battle skirt she was wearing! “That the warrior outfit you were telling me about?” He snickered. When she replied with a giggle, he tugged at the skirt. “I’m sure it was quite effective against male opponents, but lucky for me, I can’t see how tight the bodice is,” he said with a wink before climbing to his feet, wishing that he _could_ see just how deliciously tight her uniform was.

                Mako steadied him when he swayed a little and shook her head when the computer translated his willingness to continue sparring. “Oh no, big guy. If you want to do katas or something, fine, but I’m not risking hurting you. Maybe tomorrow if your pulse is normal.”

                Bardock agreed to that, and once his hands stopped shaking from the unexpected jolt, he shed his battle armor and went back to the middle of the floor, immediately flowing into the most relaxing exercise he knew. But he was broken out of it several minutes later when he intuitively felt Mako watching him closely… and was that a hint of arousal in the air? “Koto _m’yo_?”

                Swallowing at the sight of him slicked down in a light sweat and the way his voice was relaxed and gravelly, Mako was silent for several beats, but she eventually found her voice. “Teach me that one? I mean… if it’s not too much trouble and—oh, wait, I’m sorry,” she babbled out, “you can’t see me so it would be difficult to—“

                “ _Hi’nah_ ,” Bardock chuckled as he used his remaining senses to come to her and position her arms correctly. “I can teach you through touch,” he assured her as he moved around her and pressed himself flush to her back, noting the way her pulse jumped and the scent of her arousal increased. So… she wanted him? Or was it just an appreciation for his body that most women expressed? Heh, well, there were a few ways to find out. “Just relax and move as I move, Koto-mine,” he breathed softly in her ear, feeling her shiver in reaction before the translator even caught up.

                “Um… kay?” She squeaked out, her face growing hot as she felt his groin pressing intimately to the back of her skirt, his hands gliding lightly over her arms as he moved them for her. Mako went with his motions, but she jumped when his fingertips moved to her upper thighs.

                “Sorry, Koto-mine, I don’t mean to tickle.”

                His voice was right in her ear again and she shivered for a second time, but she didn’t contradict him despite the fact that he hadn’t tickled her at all. Oh no, it had felt wonderful!

                Her aroused scent growing stronger with every little touch and caress as he guided her, Mako finally had to call a halt to the lesson before she either spontaneously combusted right then and there or jumped him. “Um, uh… I had a thing with Rei, anyway.”

                “Thing?” Bardock inquired seriously, though in his mind he was chuckling at how easily he’d gotten her horny.

                “Um uh… a…” Fuck, she couldn’t even think well enough to have a coherent conversation with him! “M—Meeting,” she finally stammered out. “To talk about Rubeus.”

                Bardock couldn’t help the little growl that came out at the sound of the half-Martian’s name, but he nodded and gave her shoulder a little squeeze. “Go on then, I’ll wash up in here. I smelled showers in the back, yes?”

                “Yup. I’ll take your computer to charge… you can find your way back, right?” Mako asked, itching to get out of there before she did something stupid and wound up taking advantage of a displaced blind man. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel like he owed her anything, especially since his mention of a blood debt. She’d called Ami and had asked about that, and the queen of Mercury told her that Bardock was very likely to try and repay her somehow, likely through an offering of his services as a guard once his sight was restored.

                “ _M’eh en_ , Koto _m’yo_ ,” Bardock assured her before he turned towards the scent of fresh water and away from that strong, alluringly sweet scent of flowers.

#############################

                Mako quickly stalked towards the back of the training room to find her communicator and sighed in relief when she located it where the computer had been, near the showers, which she could hear running around the corner. That made her wonder if Bardock had everything he needed, and she stepped around the wall, onto the damp tile to voice the question… until she saw him, anyway.

                Her words died on her lips and she flushed brightly at the sight of him slicked down in soap, more than a few dirty thoughts running through her mind as a hand travelled south to thoroughly wash between his legs. _Wow,_ she mouthed, _he is fucking gorgeous._ Sure, she’d known that before, but seeing him dripping wet and covered in soap was a whole new level of hot for her and she couldn’t stop herself from fantasizing about ambushing him right then and there. All she had to do was undress, waltz right in and then she’d be wrapping her legs around his waist and—

                _Bad girl, Mako! Stop thinking about taking advantage of him! He needs your compassion and your help, not your—ok, fine, I could **definitely** show him a whole ‘nother level of compassion, heh. Can anyone say ‘sexual healing?’ _

Damn it, she had only started to cool down again after leaving the training room, too! _Why Zeus, **why** do you tempt your daughter with such an irresistibly edible sight!? _ Licking her lips at the very idea of running her tongue over him, lapping up the droplets of water beading on his stomach, she felt a renewed heat pooling between her thighs. That was when she decided that she’d better tip-toe out before she lost her mind and jumped on him, but she froze in place when his hand slipped south yet again and his fingers idly stroked his flaccid cock, and the non-expression on his face changed to one of pleasure. _Ok… spontaneous combustion take me now, please! Before I do something retarded!_

                She watched him grow hard within moments and Mako inwardly moaned when he hissed something out in his native language, his hand squeezing and stroking slowly. _Oh dear Zeus, I wish I was his hand right now!_ She squealed to herself with a faint thought of how her inner voice sounded way too similar to Minako’s for her own liking. But Makoto wished she was his tail, too, when it joined in and wrapped around his erection from the base to the head, and she was beyond aroused and fascinated at the same time as she watched the length of wet fur flex and move. _Huh… I wonder if that feels like a woman,_ she thought absently. _Bet it feels like warm, wet velvet._

                Completely rapt at the sight of what she was witnessing, Mako never once thought that he could smell her arousal, never once realized that he’d known she was there the entire time and had started his little show the moment he’d scented the fact that she was turned on by the sight of him.

Bardock didn’t let on for a moment that he knew, though, and let out a little groan as he smelled her increasing desire for him, licking his lips at the very thought of alerting her to the fact that he was aware of her presence. And then he’d stop her before she could leave, tug her under the spray with him and pull off that short skirt she’d fought him in.

                _Gods, just the idea of that is delicious,_ he whispered to himself. _And apparently I really want her, too._ “Koto,” he breathed as he moved his tail a little harder, a little faster, his imagination taking over as he thought of how she’d feel beneath him, taking every hard inch of his desire for her. “Come for me, my Koto,” he groaned, thinking of how she’d sound moaning his name in his ear.

                The first sound of him saying her name as he pleasured himself had the queen of Jupiter blanching and going stiff as a board, but after several moments she realized that he hadn’t caught her watching him like a perverted window licker. Even _better_ , he was thinking of her as he got himself off!? Damn it all to hell, ambushing him didn’t seem like a bad idea right then!

                No, no, no—that couldn’t be what she’d heard, right? She was just deluding herself into thinking that he found her as attractive as she did him. He had said something else in his native language, surely, and she had mistaken it as— _holy shit, he just said it **again**! _ There was no mistaking it that time, he’d definitely said her name, along with a few words that sounded downright sinful coming out of his mouth.

                Bardock actually heard her gasp softly and inwardly smirked at her reaction, wishing that he could see her face. _Heh, I’ll bet it’s as red as my wrist armor,_ he chuckled privately, letting out another soft groan of her name as he felt himself drawing closer to his climax. “Wish you’d come over here and join in, Koto,” he growled quietly, knowing she wouldn’t understand and would think it another line from whatever fantasy she thought he had going on in his head. “I’d make you come so hard, Koto…” Ok, it _was_ part of that dirty fantasy in his head, but it was also awfully fun and arousing as hell knowing that she was still watching him, the scent of her excitement growing stronger with every sound that came out of his mouth.  “Gods, woman, I’d pin you to the wall and fuck you to within an inch of your life… I’d have you screaming my name every time you came…”

                His beast was coming out then, and Bardock couldn’t stop it when it continued to tell her what it’d do to her if she’d only come over and let it have her. Apparently it was having an effect on her, judging by her scent, but Bardock didn’t have any time to reflect on that as the base of his tail tingled and he tightened it around his cock, using it to convulse around him and mimic what a woman would feel like if she was coming with him. He groaned her name again as he sagged back against the tiled wall, his essence spilling out onto the floor, every muscle in his body rigid as he hissed between his teeth the moment he saw white spots behind his blind eyes and found his rapture. “Mmm…” Bardock chuckled softly after several moments of respite and unwrapped his tail so he could wash it. “Damn, Koto, that was the best tail job I’ve ever given myself. We’ll have to do this more often.” Acting as if he was talking to himself as he washed his tail fur of his seed, he continued, knowing she was still there. “Maybe next time I’ll catch you doing the same… or better yet, you’ll catch me again and strip down and join me.”

                His lips twitched when her scent faded a little and he knew she was leaving, but he had to give her credit for her stealth; being Saiyan and blind, he should have heard her when she’d entered, and again when she’d left, but he hadn’t heard so much as a splash on the wet floor. “Come back any time, Koto-mine,” he chuckled.

#############################

                “Mako-chan? You ok? You look a little flustered and—it wasn’t Rubeus again, was it!?” Rei snarled over the communicator. “I swear I’m going to roast him alive when he returns to Mars!”

                “So you heard about that,” the queen of Jupiter chuckled.

                “I heard that he not only attacked you—again—but that he attacked a defenseless blind refugee-slash-delegate when the man tried to come to your defense!”

                Mako didn’t contradict her since the description was pretty accurate, but Bardock was definitely _not_ helpless or defenseless in the least.

                “Mako-chan?” Rei asked worriedly after nearly a full minute of silence. “You ok?”

                The thought of Bardock had her blushing and her mind going right back to the incident in the shower only thirty minutes beforehand, and she only blinked and asked, “huh?” When Rei shouted her name for a second time.

                “I know that look,” the other queen said wryly. “So… does he look like your old sempai?”

                Before she could stop the words from leaving her mouth, Mako had blurted them out. “Fuck, my old sempai _wishes_ he was that fucking beautiful.”

                “Damn, girl. He must be the one, then!” Rei grinned when her sister only blushed brighter and shook her head violently. “Oh, come on. Don’t tell me you won’t offer to warm his bed just because he’s blind? Hell, I’d bet that’d made him even better in bed. He’d have to _feel_ his way,” she snickered. “Oh and don’t look at me like that, Mako! I may not fuck around like Mina all the time, but I know how to enjoy myself! After all, I _am_ the goddess of motherfucking PASSION! In fact…” Her grin grew sheepish as she flicked her wrist and held a ball of swirling red power in her hand. “…shall I throw a little passion spell your way? Huh? Huh? You _know_ you want me to.”

                “Noooooo!” Mako groaned. “Please don’t, I don’t think I can take anymore moments of seeing him naked or being pressed against him in the training room!” She whined at that, shaking her head when Rei laughed at her. “I’m _serious_ ,” she added as she flopped back onto her bed with another little whine. “The poor guy is shoved ten thousand years into the future, and on top of all of that he’s been blinded! I can’t just take advantage of him, Rei!”

                “And what if he decided to take advantage of you?” The younger sister chuckled. “I highly doubt you’d fight it then.”

                “Ok, you’ve probably got me there, but no spells, Rei! Just let this all work itself out naturally, ok?”

                “Oh, fine. You know, you’re no fun, Mako-chan. I could call Mina, maybe?”

                “NOOOOOO,” Mako groaned. “NO SPELLS. And certainly _not_ from Minako! She’d have him banging me morning noon and night! Now let’s _please_ get back to the subject of what we should do about Rubeus!?”

#############################

                Following the scent of her lingering arousal in the hallway rather than counting steps, Bardock smirked knowingly when he heard her shower running inside of her suite and chuckled softly. “Well, this will be a lot simpler than I thought,” he remarked quietly before pushing her door open. “Heh, I wonder if she’s doing the exact same thing I was doing this morning.”

                Bardock had waited a couple hours, had eaten brunch and thought it all over, and after some consideration he had decided that the queen of Jupiter did in fact want him and it wasn’t just some sort of passing crush. And while he wanted her too, there was also the little matter of owing her a blood debt, so there was no honorable way to simply sleep with her, slake his lust, and possibly even mark her.

                So he’d come up with a plan that just might work. To repay the blood debt, he’d swear himself into her service. Her _total_ service, little better than a slave by Saiyan standards, but he was positive that Mako would never treat him as such. He’d warm her bed and nightguard her, he’d pleasure her whenever she was aroused or she requested it, and he’d guard her with his life.

And by Saiyan law, he’d be finished repaying the debt after two years, one year for each time she’d saved his life… and then he’d be able to broach the subject of mating her and making his position in her bed a permanent one.

 _Here goes nothing,_ he thought as he purposely made a noise just inside of the bathroom threshold to get her attention. When she called out, he knocked on the counter. “Bardock,” he replied.

                Mako shivered at the sound of his voice, low and sexy even over the noise of the shower. Why was he in there!? He couldn’t _possibly_ know that she’d been watching, right? Or that she’d been immensely turned on by what she’d seen…? Or that she’d been just about to start her _own_ little fantasizing session with the detachable shower head…? Dear gods, she was _really_ glad he’d come in right then and _not_ five minutes later!

“Um, uh—“ She cleared her throat and shook her head to herself. No, he couldn’t _possibly_ know. She’d been silent as the grave in that shower room! “Hang on, Bardock,” she finally managed as she rinsed the remainder of soap from her hair.

                Finally, she peeked her face around the curtain after she’d turned the water off. “What?”

                Knowing full well that she was hiding behind the curtain, Bardock chuckled and covered his blind eyes, then jokingly spread them to peek, grinning when she gave a little laugh.

                “Ok, yeah… I guess hiding like this is a little ridiculous,” Mako admitted as she drew the curtain away and stepped out to grab a towel. “So, what’s up?” She thought for a second, searching for some Saiyan words she’d learned. “ _R’en au t’uh_ …?”

                “ _En, Koto m’yo_. _T’uh_ … giff. Page-mint?” He inquired, trying like hell to remember how the computer had said the word he was trying for.

                “What’s a page-mint?” Mako asked lightly, impressed that he was trying so hard to learn Solarian. She smiled sweetly when he furrowed his brow, obviously trying to think of a way to communicate with her. “And it’s ‘give,’” she supplied, “not ‘giff.’”

                “Ah. Give. Give joo… ugh… _cr’dit,_ Koto.” Thinking fast, he held his hand out a bit and rubbed his fingers together in a hand sign for money.

                “Oh! Payment?” Mako asked curiously as she dried her waist length curls, not bothering to grab another towel to hide her body since he couldn’t see her.

                “Jesh,” Bardock sighed in relief, tipping his head in a nod. “Give joo pagemint. _Ch’teru_ ,” he added, moving his hand to rest over his heart.

                “First off, Bardock, you don’t owe me a thing. No payment,” she added quickly. “But what’s _ch’teru_?” Whatever it was, it sure sounded solemn according to his body language and his tone.

                “Joo… safe me. _Ch’teru_. Give _ch’cr’dit_.”

                That solemn nod returned with the word _ch’teru_ , and Mako briefly wondered if this was even something she could gracefully refuse. Damn it, this was that blood debt thing, wasn’t it? She’d looked it up and had been very surprised by what she’d read, and while she felt a little honored that he regarded her so highly, she just couldn’t take any blood payment from him. “Bardock, honey… you really don’t owe me anything, ok? No _ch’teru_.”

                “ _G’in_ , Koto. _Ch’teru_ ,” he argued gently, stepping close enough to feel her body heat along his bared chest.

                “Bardock, be reasonable. No offense, sugar, but you don’t even have anything. What would you pay me with?” Mako chuckled, trying to make light of the whole thing as she patted him on the shoulder. When she tried to push past him, however, he smoothly blocked the way.

                He hadn’t understood every word, but he’d gotten enough of it to put her words into context, and he shook his head and pointed at himself, then his nose…

                …Mako gasped and jerked in surprise when his hand suddenly dropped and the back of it brushed over her damp curls. “Bardock! What the—you can’t—“ Then his gestures hit her like a sack of rocks and she turned beet red. “You can _smell_ it when I’m—when I’m—“ Holy shit on a stick, he’d _smelled_ her when she’d been peeping on him in the training room shower!

                “Jesh, Koto,” Bardock replied, unable to keep a note of mirth from his voice. Gods, what he wouldn’t have given just to see the look on her face right then! “Joo vant me. I give. _Ch’teru_.”

                Eyes as big as saucers, Mako’s brain was still stuttering on the fact that he’d known she’d been watching him the entire time he’d been touching himself in his shower and she shook her head. “Oh gods… Bardock, please, get the computer and please let me explain! I was coming back to get my communicator, I swear it! And I thought you might need a towel or soap or something and I was going to just step back there and—“

                “ _Hi’nah_ , Koto _m’yo_ ,” Bardock chuckled softly. “No com-pooter. Joo. Me.” Finding her hand, he placed it on his bare chest, over his heart, and held it there when she tried to pull it away. He then proceeded to recite the Saiyan blood oath, binding himself to her until the blood debt had been paid in full, and when he was finished, he waited for her to speak. “Koto _m’yo_ ,” he finally rumbled, wishing for the gazillionth time that he could see her. “Joo vant me?” He asked, trying to get her to say yes, to accept his oath to her. That was all she needed to say, was ‘yes,’ and then the deal would be struck and he’d be on his way to repaying her for her kindness.

                “Yes,” she breathed after a few more moments of silence, her cheeks burning red hot. But before she could start rambling, Bardock was speaking again.

                “I give, Koto _m’yo_. Joo vant me, I give,” he repeated softly.

                Wait a hot minute! He was actually offering his _body_ in payment!? The body that she’d admired since she’d first seen him!? That hot, gorgeous body that she’d acknowledged desiring only the morning before!? “Dear sweet Zeus,” she whimpered, momentarily at a loss for an acceptable answer.

                Bardock was already answering for her, though, and she was still too dumbstruck to do anything when he knelt before her quickly, his hands tugging her forward and his mouth instantly pressing to her folds.

                Mako melted like hot butter at the first stroke of his tongue, an incoherent word slipping from her lips and dying just as quickly when he delicately moved it again, the tip of it lingering on her clit before he flicked it down and drug it back up again. “Bar… _Bardock_ … I…” She finally managed those few words when that sleek, wet muscle swirled once around the edge of her entrance, but her eyes were slipping shut as he cradled her to him and began to lick once more, his motions slow and precise.

                “Shh, Koto,” he breathed when she attempted to word a weak protest. “ _Ra’dir_ ,” he whispered as he used his superior strength to lower her to the floor without dropping her. Now freed, one of his hands slipped between her thighs and he pressed two thick digits into her just as he lowered his tongue to her clit once more, and he purred at the sound of her moaning softly and the feeling of her hands burying themselves in his hair.

                Unable to even think of a reasonable argument when every careful stroke of his tongue and fingers was sending curls of pleasure radiating through her body, Mako resigned herself to simply moaning his name softly. She hadn’t felt anything this heavenly, hadn’t experienced such slow, sweet attention in centuries, and her body was successfully overriding any and all thoughts of asking him to stop… even if what he was doing could be considered as sex as payment. “Harder,” she finally whimpered after several minutes of just gasping at every slow, deliberate flicker of his tongue.

                “Slow,” he purred in Saiyan, his voice coming out in a sexy whisper as he nibbled at her inner thigh, his fingers still pumping into her at a leisurely pace. “It’ll feel so much better if I draw it out, Koto.”

                She didn’t have the slightest clue what he was saying, but she had to admit to herself that he sounded undeniably sexy as he purred something else in his native language, followed by a slow, lingering open-mouthed kiss to the aching bundle of nerves within her folds. “Gods… _please_ , Bardock…”

                Bardock began hooking his fingers into her sweet spot then, smiling in triumph when she moaned loudly, but his lips and tongue were still meticulously slow when he pressed them to her clit once more. Every flick, every kiss, and every caress to her clitoris had a purpose, and he continued on gently, delighting in every single whimper and pleading moan that erupted from her throat. He wouldn’t deny her, oh no, but he was going to draw out her pleasure as long as he could this very first time, and then he was going to lick and suck until she was a puddle of writhing goo on the bathroom floor.

                Another minute of her begging softly passed before Bardock gave in to her gentle pleas for more, and he wasn’t surprised when she came after only three or four slow, lazy sucks, her legs stiffening around his shoulders and her lower body bucking once, then arching hard as she cried out. “ _En_?” He whispered between a few soft licks to her sex to ride out her climax.                                                

                “Mmm?” Mako could only squirm and arch at that moment, fighting for air in the wake of her first male-induced orgasm in a very, very long time, but soon enough she was tugging at him in a silent plea to cover her body with his and take his own pleasure. “Please?” She whimpered when he eased her hands back down to her sides and gently shook his head, giving her another slow lick.

                “ _F’ri_ , Koto _m’yo. F’ri k’sha’or_ ,” Bardock breathed into her heat, purring loudly at just the thought of burying himself inside of her. But no, he’d wind up biting her since she was in heat—not to mention he’d likely get her pregnant— and since this was part of his repayment of the blood debt, taking his own pleasure was not allowed.

                Bardock inwardly groaned at that; the way he’d worded his vow to serve her in all things was pretty much a lifelong repayment of the debt—not just two years— and he knew he was in for a hell of a life if he planned on giving her only her pleasure and refrained from ever taking his own. “ _Ra’dir v’nu_ , Koto _m’yo_ ,” he whispered before diving back in to suck some more, making her cling to him tightly and moan his name.

#############################

                Mako sleepily blinked open her eyes as she heard a gentle purring sound, her body automatically snuggling in tighter to the form she was pressed against, but when she looked up and saw Bardock’s face, she stiffened and tried not to panic. _Oh dear gods, did that seriously happen!? Did he really get me off so many times that I passed out!?_ She squeaked in her head.

                “ _V’nu_ , Koto _m’yo_?” Bardock rumbled as he bent his head to placate his beast and nipped at her bare shoulder.

                Well, if he was offering… _No, Mako! Gods, you’re such a bad girl! He meant this as payment… oh dear gods, you’re a ‘ **John**!’ _ “Um… uh, no thanks,” she whimpered nervously, trembling at the way his hand was slowly caressing a line of pure heat up her side, his fingers exploring her lazily. _Maybe if he likes what he ‘sees’ with his hands, he’ll go all the way?_ Summing up her courage, Mako blushed brightly as she let her own hand brush over the crotch of the black slacks that Toki had found for the Saiyan warrior. “But if you would like…? Um…” Damn, she couldn’t even think of the right words in Saiyan, she was so flustered by the position she was in! “You want?” She managed hoarsely.

                Bardock chuckled at that, delicately removing her hand and giving it a kiss. “ _F’ri_ , Koto _m’yo_. Joo…” Hm, he didn’t know the word for that in Solarian. “ _Br’at_ ,” he finished, laying his hand on her stomach, followed by a little gesture to indicate pregnancy, then a touch to his nose.

                Ok, there was no way in _hell_ she could be pregnant, so… “Ooooh, I get it. I’m fertile and you can smell it,” she realized aloud. “And wait a second… your word for ‘baby’ is ‘brat’?” She snorted, giggling uncontrollably. “You really call your kids brats, oh gods, that’s too funny!”

                Unsure what was making her laugh so beautifully, Bardock just went with it and chuckled, indulging in one more tender nip to her shoulder. Gods, his beast wanted her so badly! It was a good thing that he’d made that vow, otherwise he’d be knocking her up right in that moment. Thank the gods that his beast at least understood the meaning of _ch’teru_ and honor, and it seemed that it would cooperate with him so long as he acted within the parameters of the blood debt.

                “Well, I guess I could return the favor,” Mako purred, uncaring if this was some sort of debt he was repaying. Damn it, she was not the type of girl to just take seven mind-blowing orgasms lying down—ok, damn it, she _had_ been lying down for most of it, but that wasn’t the point! She should at least return such oral generosity with some of her own!

                Bardock jumped when she suddenly pinned him on his back and for a moment he was confused, but when her mouth came in contact with his chest and began to trail towards his stomach, he stopped her. “No, Koto-mine… gods, I’m awfully tempted, trust me… but no. Because of the blood debt, I can’t accept pleasure from you.”

                He frowned when she sighed and seemed extremely disappointed, so he didn’t protest when he felt her lips pressing to his gently. “Kiss,” the computer had called it when Bardock had asked about the alien gesture of affection. And since it had explained as thoroughly as possible about the mating of mouths, Bardock just purred and parted his lips when he felt her tongue seeking entrance, his hands bunching in her hair as they devoured each other. _Oh, I like this… yeah, I could **definitely** get used to it._

                So entranced was he by the new, exotic experience, Bardock didn’t even sense the presence of someone else close by until Mako’s door swung open and he heard a familiar male voice cursing vehemently in Solarian. But the moment he heard that voice, Bardock was growling in warning and covering Makoto, his hands clenching into fists the second the intruder stepped over the threshold. “Go!” He shouted in Mako’s language, pointing at the door. “Go _d’ha_!”


	5. Chapter 5

“Like hell I’m going!” Rubeus snapped heatedly as he stepped towards the bed. “I just fucking knew it, Makoto. You’re such a fucking slut that it is just _sick_.”

                While she was blushing to her toes and fighting the urge to cry, she couldn’t stop herself from sitting up and snapping right back at him. “If I’m such a SLUT, Rubeus, WHY haven’t I spread my legs for you, huh!? Now get the fuck out of my room before I put you through—“ Her eyes flew wide at the sight of Bardock following through on the threat before it could leave her mouth, and she fleeting wondered just how _many_ walls the Saiyan had put him through before Bardock was loudly slamming her door shut.

                She was still gawking when he counted steps into his own room, using the wall as a guide, and returned lugging the bookcase that had been blocking the door between their rooms. “Asshole,” he grunted in Saiyan as he found the Rubeus-shaped hole in the wall and positioned the bookcase against it. Koto was babbling to herself heatedly, her little rant punctuated with some swear words he understood, but when he scented her tears, Bardock used his tail to locate her and drag her up into his arms. “ _Hi’nah_ ,” he rumbled before kissing her gently, his hands slowly exploring her body. “ _F’ri v’nu_ Rubeus, Koto _m’yo_. _M’eh_. _Au_.”

                “No, Bardock,” she insisted softly, pulling herself out of his grip. “It’s… it’d be best if this doesn’t ever happen again. Gods know I’m going to catch enough flack when Motoki finds out. Sorry.”

                His beast raised up at the implied rejection when she pulled away, but Bardock kept it in check even though he couldn’t keep the thick disappointment out of his voice. “Joo… joo vant me go, Koto _m’yo_? _F’ri v’nu_?”

                “Yeah,” she whispered sadly, hating like hell to hurt his feelings, but unable to express just why she needed a little space. “Thanks, Bardock.”

                “Joo verr-come. _Ve’sh m’yo_.”

                “And Bardock… I’m sorry,” she added softly before he’d completely left the room. “I’m not upset with you, I hope you know that.”

                “Rubeus _jik’hi_ ,” Bardock snorted, understanding full well why she needed some time alone. It was obvious that the little prick wanted Makoto and that he was likely now going to spread all sorts of vicious little—waaaaaaaaaait… Bardock grinned savagely and turned his head towards Mako. “Koto _m’yo_? Rubeus. I…” Furrowing his brow, the blind Saiyan made a motion with his hand against his throat. “Jesh?”

                Mako just gawked in disbelief and finally shook her head before remembering that he couldn’t see her silent refusal of such a thing. “No! I mean… it’s a nice little fantasy of mine to slit his throat, but no!”

                “ _G’re, g’re_ …” He sputtered, slightly upset that he couldn’t just end the little asshole’s life as he would have on Vegeta-sai. “ _A’hir Rubeus_?” He asked hopefully. When she told him no again, he cracked another grin and held up his thumb and his forefinger close together. “Jesh? Jiddle hurt?”

                “Pht! No!” Mako laughed. “You’re not gonna hurt him ‘just a little bit!’ I know damned well that you’re going to beat the living hell out of him if given the opportunity…” She sighed heavily at that, feeling a little better since Bardock had made her laugh. “No… don’t go, Bardock. Stay with me?” She asked softly. “Please?”

                “ _M’kor_ viff joo?” He asked hopefully, already closing the door between their rooms.

                “Um… yeah, if… if that’s ok.”

                “Jesh, Koto _m’yo_. Ish _g’re_ ,” he rumbled affectionately as he went back to the bed and stripped to the skin, feeling her eyes wandering his warm, tan flesh. “Joo vant, Koto?”

                “I want to lick every inch of you, honestly. But I guess I’ll settle for some making out before we sack out for the night.” Mako had to admit that she definitely wanted more than that the moment he slid in beside her in the bed, though, and while she didn’t particularly like using them… “If I’m fertile, we can use a condom?” She suggested, slipping one from her subspace and pressing it into his hand.

                “The hell is this?” Bardock asked, holding what felt like a foil packet up to his nose. He gave it a sniff but couldn’t detect anything; it was tightly sealed.

                “Condom,” Mako said with a little blush.

                “Con…dom. The fuck’s a condom?” He snorted in Saiyan. Bardock’s eyebrows went up a little when he felt her fingers stroke his cock lightly and she repeated the word. “Ooooh… I think I get it, Koto. But no. I made a vow,” he purred, giving her a tender little kiss, his chest rumbling as he gently pushed her hand away from him. “ _Ch’teru_ , Koto _m’yo. F’ri_.”

                “Ugh… I don’t understand, Bardock,” she sighed heavily. Mako took the condom from him then and unwrapped it, but before he could refuse or she could even think about getting him hard, she giggled and shook her head. “Oh dear Zeus… hahaha… HAHAHAHA! You are _waaaaay_ too big for this thing, Bardock!”

                Wondering what was so funny and wishing he could share in the joke, his hand found hers and he immediately understood the problem. “Heh, I highly doubt they make Saiyan-sized condoms on your planet, Koto m’yo. If all the men here are as tiny as you, they’d be lucky to be half my size.” His beast was rising up again at that very thought, quite jealous just at the notion of any other man being inside of her, and Bardock wished to the gods that there was some sort of loophole involving the Saiyan blood debt. But no, he was bound to her until she released him, and unless she learned the Saiyan language to do so, it wasn’t happening anytime soon.

#########################

                Mako was surprised to wake before Bardock and smiled softly down at him, her fingers brushing lightly through his hair once before she reached in her subspace and removed her own computer, something she hadn’t even done since she’d given Bardock the one Ami had sent.

                Thank all the gods in the heavens, the bastard of an ancient computer was done updating! Wooo! Mako grinned and plugged in some headphones, placing one in her ear so that any sounds wouldn’t wake up her sleeping—what was he, anyway? Friend? Lover? Eh, who knew?

                She pulled up her email first, sputtered at the sight of over five thousand messages—it had been decades since she’d even checked it—but yet again thanked the gods that Ami’s email was on the first page. “Ugh… two fucking hours to download this program?” She whispered in annoyance. “Fine. Whatever. Download the damned thing.” And in the meantime, she’d do something that she was positive Ami hadn’t even bothered to try.

                “That’s right, Ami… you’re always bemoaning Google and using your stupid little genius database… so let’s—Saiyans. Got it!” She snorted, trying not to giggle as she resisted the urge to call her sister and brag about how she was a lot craftier than her. “Hm. Saiyan language… Wikipedia… huh… Saiyan mannerisms, traditions and a comprehensive guide… oh hell yeah, I’m game.”

                Mako was very glad that she had her headphones in when she clicked the website and a woman’s voice greeted her ear, and she popped in the other earbud as she listened to the woman welcome her to the most comprehensive guide on Saiyan customs and traditions in the universe.

                The first thing that popped into her head was _ch’teru_ , but unsure as to how to spell it, she hunted around the site for a little while, looking for a glossary. And when she found it, she grinned and immediately clicked on what she was positive was the correct word.

                “ _Ch’teru_ ,” the woman’s voice said solemnly in her ears. “The _ch’teru_ is the Saiyan blood debt, and is part of the most sacred of vows that any Saiyan warrior can make. When a warrior acknowledges that he owes the debt, he will make a vow to repay the one that saved his or her life. That vow is called _ch’j’ha_ —the blood vow. The repayment is referred to as _ch’cr’dit_.”

                That was the end of the definition, and Mako immediately clicked on _ch’cr’dit_ and listened closely. “ _Ch’cr’dit_. This is the Saiyan blood payment, made in the event of a blood debt, referred to in the Saiyan language as _ch’teru_. _Ch’teru_ can vary, depending upon the circumstances of the debt and why the warrior feels indebted in the first place, but it is generally made for saving someone’s life. The payment could be anything from permission to mate with a relative, to actual payment in money. In a case where the warrior owns nothing, it was not uncommon for the warrior to dedicate his very existence to the one owed’s pleasure, basically making himself their slave forever.

                “ _Ch’cr’dit_ cannot be refused; however, _ch’teru_ can be absolved by reciting the _ch’f’ri_ beneath the full moon with the debtor present.”

                Mako stopped at that and shook her head slowly. So… that’s what Bardock had done. He lived for her pleasure because she’d saved his life. _Oh dear gods,_ she sighed mentally as she blushed, thinking of how he’d loved her with his lips and tongue for several hours. _He… he probably doesn’t even really want me… he’s just doing this because he thinks he owes me. Gods, I’m such an idiot… and here I’d done fallen… no. No, Mako. You’re not in love with him, don’t even think that. Because he almost definitely doesn’t feel the same way for you._

                _Ok,_ she thought after several moments of fighting the urge to cry at her own stupidity, _let’s figure out this_ ch’f’ri _thingy._ She clicked on that next andblinked at the sight of just a few words written out on the screen, accompanied with an explanation almost as short. “Saiyans kept things extremely simple. Speak these words under a full moon to the warrior indebted to you if you wish to free him from the _ch’j’ha_.”

                _F’ri v’nu ch, au sh t’au. D’in m’yo, ge._

“Well, that’s simple enough,” she whispered. “Hell… I even think I know what that means… is _sh_ ‘life’ as well as ‘woman,’ maybe?” _Hm… must be the context it’s used in. Ami did say that they didn’t have a massive vocabulary and that several words could double for others. I guess they’re like metaphors in a way… women do **give** life, after all._

She was about to click around on the site some more and find out how the webmistress knew so damned much about Saiyans when they’d only been extinct for several millennia, but a tail looping around her inner upper thigh made her yelp and jump a mile. “Bardock!” She snapped as she jerked the earbuds out and snapped the computer shut. “Gods, you scared the fuck out of me!”

                “Fuck me running, woman… I am horny as _hell_ ,” he growled, his chest stuttering in a loud purr as he removed his tail from her to wrap it around his cock, his face immediately burying itself between her thighs. And when she struggled a little, he just growled again, the vibration making her gasp in pleasure and lose every intention she’d had of telling him no. “Holy!” She yelled when he latched onto her clit and began to suckle her hungrily, her eyes rolling back and her body going stiff as a board as she bucked once, twice, then cried his name.

                “Mmm… and I’m not even there yet, Koto-mine,” Bardock chuckled roughly before licking her a few more times. “Come for me again, my mate,” his beast added softly, latching onto her yet again, drinking in the sound of her musical little whimpers and moans when she tried to protest that it was too much. Too much, huh? He purred as loudly as he could right then and sucked harder, tightening his tail around his cock as she moaned loudly, her hands tugging at his hair as they came together.

                Mako couldn’t stop the giggle that came out of her mouth when he slid up to kiss her and she felt his moist, limp cock press to her inner thigh. “Guess that blood debt doesn’t matter if you’re jacking yourself off,” she laughed as she kissed him.

                “ _En sh_ ,” he purred.

                “Good light?” She guessed aloud, figuring that life and light would be connected.

                “Jesh, Koto m’yo. Good… sun?”

                “Morning,” she corrected before kissing him passionately, her legs going around his waist despite the fact that she knew he wouldn’t fully make love to her. She giggled as he growled and ground it into her core, and when she broke away she nipped at his jaw, internally cracking up as she wondered if Saiyans had puns. “I want some meat, Bardock,” she breathed in his ear. “ _T’uh f’ai_.”

                Bardock growled again, his lips twitching up as he rocked into her once. “ _F’ai m’yo_ , Koto?”

                “Who else’s?” She snorted. “Please?” She added in a sweet little begging voice, using her strong, muscular legs to flip them. “ _Buh’tir_?”

                He may have been soft, but he was still randy enough to get hard again and he knew it. But even with the temptation pressing right to his groin, Bardock was grasping at every shred of honor he had as he sighed mournfully and shook his head. “No, Koto. _Br’at. Ch’teru_.”

                “Bardock,” Mako whispered softly. “Please… just tell me… do you want me? Do you even really want me? Because… if you don’t, then I don’t want you doing this. To yourself or to me. _Au_ …” It took her a moment to put the sentence together in Saiyan, but when she did, she was swallowing tears. “ _Au f’ri t’uh m’eh… hi’nah. F’ri v’nu_.”

                _Oh fuck me running, I hurt her feelings! Damn it all to hell!_ “Koto,” he groaned, wrapping his tail around her to hold her to him as he sat up. “ _M’eh t’uh au_. _M’eh **j’ha nava m’yo**_. _Ch’teru_ ,” he added with a kiss to her lips, sighing again as he felt her frown. “I joors, Koto. I **vant joo**. A lot,” he added in Saiyan, bending his head to nip at her shoulder. “ _Ch’f’ri_ ,” he sighed. “ _M’eh t’uh ch’f’ri_ , Koto _m’yo_.”

                _Tonight,_ she thought. _If he really does want me… I’ll find out tonight… just give him the benefit of the doubt, Mako, it’s not like he’s lied to you ever._ “Shower?” She asked, liking the idea of sliding against him under the spray.

                Bardock liked the idea, too, but he knew that he’d definitely lose his shit and his honor if he started engaging in any form of waterplay with this woman. “No, Koto-mine,” he chuckled in Saiyan. “If I shower with you, you’ll definitely be getting a huge helping of my meat for breakfast.”

                She caught enough of that to understand and giggled, sliding off of him and to the floor before going into the bathroom, leaving the door unlocked just in case he changed his mind.

                The displaced Saiyan did count his steps to go in there, but he merely did his business and washed his hands, relaxing a little as he listened to Koto singing something he couldn’t understand in the shower. That was when he heard a knock at the door and he growled, almost hoping that it was Rubeus so he could put him through a few more walls.

                “ _R’en_ ,” he snapped out as he cracked open the door several inches, losing his scowl the moment he smelled that it was Toki. “Vat joo vant, Toki?”

                “For you to put some fucking clothes on?” He replied with a little snicker. “Ye gods, Bardock. Is she walking bowlegged? Or is she walking at all after taking that thing?”

                Not too sure what he was talking about, Bardock just shrugged and shook his head. “Vat joo vant?”

                “I wanted to check on Mako. Where is she? Oh, and I brought food… I thought you’d both be hungry after last night,” he added with another little chuckle.

                “Go away,” he snorted. “Leave the basket.” Bardock used his nose to find the food and snatched it out of his hand then and shut the door, but he didn’t slam it, figuring that that would let Motoki know he wasn’t pissed at him. There just wasn’t any way he was letting another male into the room while his Koto was naked and in the shower, and not when he could earn some brownie points by having breakfast ready and waiting for her.

“ _Au t’uh f’ai_ , Koto _m’yo_?” He chuckled when he smelled flowers and fresh baked cookies returning to the room. Gods, her heat smelled amazing!

Mako nearly fell over laughing when she saw the sausage link he was waving towards her, and had tears rolling down her face by the time she reached him. “ _T’uh f’ai t’au_!” She giggled before snatching the offering from his hand with her teeth. “Besides… this teeny thing isn’t going to fill me up nearly as well as yours!”

“Heh, I have a feeling you were complimenting my cock, Koto-mine,” he chuckled, his purr rumbling as he held another piece of sausage up and she took that one with her mouth as well, her tongue lingering on his thumb, making him shiver at the feeling of his beast rearing up. “Gods, woman… I’m positive now that I would have felt the pull for you… you’ve even got my beast feeding you.”

That was when he felt and smelled a piece of bacon at his lips, and he made the motion as sensual as possible as he took it from her with his teeth. “You’ve even got it eating out of your hand, Koto-mine,” he added once he’d finished the offering. “You have since I first smelled you.”

“I have no clue what you’re saying, Bardock, but if you’re talking dirty to me, I love the sound of it,” she replied softly, daring to dive in to kiss him, moaning softly when he returned it with an intensity that she hadn’t expected.

“ _H—Hi’nah_ ,” he finally gasped, his cock throbbing against her stomach the moment she straddled him.

 _“Ch’teru?”_ She guessed with a grumble, glancing out the window to find it raining. It was still dark because of the fourteen hour nights on Jupiter, but with it raining, there likely wasn’t a single full moon to be seen. “I’m fucking your brains out tonight, you understand me?” She breathed in his ear, giving him one, slow stroke just to make him groan with desire.

As expected, he only allowed her that one sweet caress and nipped at her lower lip in what was clearly a chastising gesture. “You want to make me come, Koto?” He breathed against her throat, wrapping his tail around himself.

“Fuck yes, I do,” she replied with a little growl of her own, her nails raking down his back just enough to mix a little pain in with the pleasure when his tail started to flex and move. “ _Ra’dir_ , Bardock,” she added as she began to kiss a line of fire up his neck to his jaw. That was one word she remembered all too well from the previous night; he’d only breathed it in her ear or growled it out just before he’d given her another tongue lashing and sent her spiraling towards heaven, and she was positive that it meant ‘to come.’

“ _Ra’dir_ ,” she whispered again as he groaned her name helplessly, his hands sliding down her hips and clutching at her tightly, pressing her flush to his tail-engulfed arousal. “Come for me, Bardock… I want to know what I do to you.”

“Want you, Koto-mine… gods, I want to be inside of you so badly,” he growled as he bent his head to her shoulder, giving her a strong enough bite to actually nick the skin a little. Her whimper of pleasure had him ready to shatter his honor into a million pieces and just take her right then and there, but the gods favored him at that moment and he came before he could sink his teeth into the swell of her shoulder. “Dear gods, that was _close_ ,” he groaned, resting his forehead to her breast. “Don’t do that to me again, Koto…”

“Sweet Zeus, that was so fucking _sexy_ ,” she chuckled, her tongue tracing the shell of his ear. “We’ll have to do that again soon.”

“If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, Koto-mine, I believe I’m in for a very long blood payment,” he whimpered.

“Heh, I so wish you could understand me right now, big guy… because you have absolutely no clue what you’re in for tonight. Fuck, I’d take you outside right now if it weren’t raining. You know what, though? That’s ok, because we’re going to have fifteen full moons tonight, and three of them are gonna be fully eclipsed, too! It’s gonna be so pretty! If you could see, I would have planned on taking you out there before this, but I didn’t want to make you sad by telling you about something beautiful that you couldn’t even experience.”

Bardock just chuckled and shook his head a little, nipping at her breast as she finished her little monologue, wishing he could understand well enough to join in on whatever she sounded so elated about. “ _Ad_ , Koto _m’yo_?” He finally managed.

“Heh, sure… but, um… I think we should hit the showers first, unless you want to risk getting _you_ all over the food,” she giggled. “And then I need to call Toki and ask him about Rubeus,” she added sourly, frowning deeply as she pinched her nose in anger. “Gods, I hate him so much right now. I’m probably going to have to dress up as the queen and everything and formally boot his ass from my planet.”

“I could always just kill him?” Bardock suggested, drawing his finger against his throat, guessing that she was musing over what to do about the little asshole.

“No,” she sputtered. Mako shook her head, kissed him, then carefully extracted herself from him to stand on the carpet. “Come on, big man,” she offered, taking his hand to lead him to the shower with her. “I probably should let you go separately since I have a good feeling that you’ll be fucking me with your tongue in the shower… but I won’t kid myself and say that I’d turn it down.”

The food was cold when they finally returned to the bed and both of them dressed for the day, but Makoto was feeling a whole lot better, her head clear from the three orgasms that Bardock had insisted on bestowing upon her before he’d even let her think about washing his scent off of her again.

And she was more than happy to oblige, moaning his name loudly as he kissed and licked at her clit with a fervor that had her preparing to black out from the pleasure onslaught. And when he’d stood and lifted her onto his shoulders, her legs wrapped around his neck, she damned near _had_ passed out, clinging to him desperately as her only touchstone back to Jupiter when he’d sent her soaring for nearly a full minute.

“ _T’uh v’nu_ , Koto _m’yo_?” Bardock teased, nipping at her ear the moment she was dressed. His hands wandered a little when he felt silk against his arms, and he looked askance at her with cloudy eyes when he realized that she was wearing what felt like a formal gown.

“Rubeus,” she ground out.

“Ah, ok. I understand… you want me to come with you?” He asked, making gestures with his hands to indicate that he follow her.

“You want to?” Mako inquired slowly, wondering if that was the best of ideas. The last thing she needed was a confrontation between the two of them in her throne room. Bardock would very likely win, but it would look awfully bad on her with Rubeus’s Lunarian kin if he died on Jupiter.

Shit. Could he keep his temper in check well enough if Rubeus got too close to her and his tone became threatening enough to set off his inner beast? _Can we?_ He actually asked his little passenger.

_Yes. We serve her. So long as he does not try to harm her, I can keep our honor intact._

“Jesh, Koto _m’yo_. I go.”


	6. Chapter 6

Makoto ignored the curious looks and waggling brows as she took her seat on her throne and Bardock stood just behind her and to the side, within striking range should anyone pose a danger to her, but just far enough away without posing a nuisance. Oh yes, she knew exactly what he was doing, and his posture and position spoke of someone who was very accustomed to standing guard over a monarch as well as his warrior’s training. _Well, I could definitely do a lot worse if he’s sworn himself to my protection,_ she mused silently, making a mental note to check out that website a little further once she’d returned to her quarters.

                “Bringing in the accused, Majesty,” a guard informed her respectfully, waiting for her nod of approval before he opened a door to allow Rubeus to step into the throne room.

                “Oh, this is just _rich_ ,” Rubeus drawled as he looked around the room full of courtiers and minor royals of other planets. “You’re seriously going to air all of this mess out in front of the biggest mouths on the planet, Mako?”

                “You _will_ address me as ‘Majesty,’ Rubeus… if you must address me at all,” Makoto stated firmly, keeping her face stern and her back straight in the uncomfortable throne. “And I have nothing to hide from my people, though my personal business really isn’t anyone’s but my own. But when it’s become involved in a matter such as this—an attack upon myself and my personal bodyguard… not to mention a very aggressive invasion of my private chambers—I suppose I will have to deal with the entire kingdom knowing about my dirty laundry. Though it’s really not that dirty when I’m not even married or betrothed,” she added with a little roll of her eyes.

                “I’ve been courting you for years, Mako, and you know it!” Rubeus snapped loudly. “And then I walked in on you and—and your _bodyguard_ , as you put it—and I’m not supposed to react as if I was betrayed!?”

                “Your Majesty,” Mako growled softly down at him. “Address me so informally again, and Bardock won’t be the one putting you through a wall, Rubeus. It’ll be me. _F’ri_ , Bardock,” she added softly when he stepped forward at the sound of his name. “ _M’eh en_.”

                “You are charged with threatening bodily harm upon myself and Bardock, Rubeus, as well as bypassing my guards and trespassing in the royal chambers,” Mako continued seriously. “How do you plead?”

                “Guilty, since there’s no way in hell I’ll ever get a fair defense if I decide to take this to trial,” he snorted. “Though I feel like I should just to get the word out a little faster about what a slut you are. A cold, frigid, heartless bitch to those seeking your hand for centuries, _Your Majesty_ ,” he sneered. “But the moment this _bodyguard_ of yours drops in from who knows where, you’re sucking his cock and spreading your legs like a common whore and—“

                “Thank you, Toki,” Mako sighed when her most trusted advisor and friend stepped out of the crowd of courtiers and punched Rubeus right in the nose.

The blonde was rubbing at his bruised fist when he gave the queen a brief nod, and while he had a few things to say, he could see the tears in her eyes and decided to keep his thoughts to himself. There would be time to comfort his friend when she wasn’t so close to losing her shit in front of every noble on the planet.

As if to prove his words hadn’t affected her, Mako managed a wry smile as Rubeus used his shirt to wipe at his bloodied nose. “Actually, Rubeus, what you walked in on was just a make-out session… I’d been well on my way to some cocksucking, but your horrible timing stopped me from partaking of such,” she chuckled, making more than a few onlookers laugh. Now… do you have anything else to say? Would you like another jab to the nose? Great punch, by the way, Toki.”

Even Motoki managed a little grin at that when everyone around him started snickering, but he could see how close his queen was to bursting into tears at the embarrassment of having her private matters made public. She’d been absolutely right to address the situation immediately, though; if she’d attempted any sort of cover-up or had blown off Rubeus’s venomous words, she would have surely received backlash from what little opposition she faced on Jupiter. She’d still have to deal with some of that, for sure, but her candid honesty so soon after the incident would only cement her people’s faith in her as a transparent ruler.

“What was it then?” Rubeus hissed. “A pity fuck because he’s blind, Majesty?”

The room fell silent when a ball of lightning immediately crackled around her fist, but Bardock stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, taking a light jolt as she got her anger under control. “If you’re going to execute him, my queen, allow me to do so. It is my duty to you.”

She didn’t understand but a few words, but Mako guessed what he was saying and shook her head. “No, Bardock. This is my job, not yours. And I won’t give his brother anything more to bitch about. Guards, get him on the first transport back to Mars, and if he returns to Jupiter, his life is forfeit. Rubeus, since my sister is your liege, she has graciously offered to deal with your crimes back on your home planet. And believe me, Rei has some fairly _creative_ plans for your punishment. We’re done here, enjoy your flight.”

Makoto stood following her clear dismissal of the half-Martian, her gown swishing about her feet as she descended from the dais. Later on, she reflected that she should have seen the attack coming, but her head was reeling from the gossip she knew that was coming via the tabloids and the social networks, and she didn’t even think to erect a shield as she moved to exit the throne room.

The first cry of rage had her spinning in place though, and before she had time to shield herself, a large ball of flame was bearing down on her. But it only singed her dress before she was shoved to the ground by a Saiyan warrior yelling her name. He was gone just as quickly as he’d flown to her aid, his withdrawal from her body followed by the bloody-meaty-smacking sounds of fists on flesh and the crunching of bones.

“Bardock,” she rasped out as quite a few pairs of hands immediately moved to help the queen and she found herself on her feet, still disoriented as she pushed through the crowd surrounding the sounds of a brutal Saiyan execution. 

She’d seen a lot of nasty things in her life, had encountered disemboweled youma during her later fights alongside her sisters as they’d matured as warriors… but Makoto’s stomach actually churned a little at the sight of what Bardock had done to Rubeus in his uncontrollable rage. “Bardock,” she choked out, immediately rushing to him, grasping his blood-flecked arms and then yanking him by the straps of his armor when he just shrugged her off and continued to beat what was left of the Martian diplomat. “Bardock— _buh’tir! Hi’nah_!” She cried out, sagging in relief when he froze.

It wasn’t her command that stopped Bardock, but rather the scent of her tears and a hint of burned flesh, and he shook violently and panted for air as he got his beast’s rage under control. “ _R’sha m’yo… en au_?”

He snarled as he turned to her and his hands immediately went to her ankles. She was lightly burned, but it was nothing that wouldn’t heal up in a day with some of that ointment they’d used on her arm. “Joo save,” he added when she recoiled from him a little, likely from the wet, sticky blood he could feel cooling on his skin.

“Bardock,” Motoki said slowly as he knelt in a pool of blood, taking care to stay just out of touching distance of the queen, “can you take Makoto somewhere safe?” He could practically hear the Saiyan trying to translate the request in his head as he fought down the urge to jump back in and rip Rubeus’s corpse apart some more, and Toki waved everyone back when the crowd pushed forward, all of the courtiers voicing concern for the queen.

That was good at least; the opinion was clearly in Makoto’s favor over the issue; there had been hundreds of witnesses to Rubeus’s attack and there was no way Diamond and his people could demand some sort of price or attempt to retaliate without drawing the righteous anger of all nine planets and their peoples.

“Yes,” Bardock grunted in Saiyan. “And cut up what’s left of that cowardly little traitor and ship it to his next of kin. And if any of them show up to demand a blood price… bring them to me,” he finished with a feral little growl before using his tail to snag his little queen and possessively press his lips to hers. He felt her sag into it, her body still trembling uncontrollably, but Bardock’s rage was still burning too hot for him to manage more than a feeble little purr as he devoured her mouth ravenously. He only released her when his beast gave a little shake of the cage it had been shoved back into, and Bardock knew that the scent of her combined with the bloodlust would be his undoing if he didn’t stop now. “ _M’yo_ ,” he stated flatly, his tone daring anyone to disagree with him.

Even if the word wasn’t understood by anyone present but Motoki and Makoto, the tone was definitely universal, and not a single soul dared to touch the queen when Bardock scooped her into his arms and carried her from the throne room.

The moment Bardock set Mako down on her feet in her own room and began groping around the bathroom to get the hot water going in the tub, she sat down abruptly on the tile and trembled, bursting into uncontrollable tears, her body shaking as hard as Bardock’s had down in the throne room.

“ _Hi’nah_ , Koto _m’yo_ ,” he breathed into her bloodied hair. “Joo save. _Au n’ta_. _F’ri v’nu_ Rubeus. _Ra’dir_ ,” he ordered gently as he scooped her up. “ _Sh’ri. F’ri v’nu ch_.”

Mako clung to him and didn’t protest as his sticky hands gently stripped her of all her stained finery and he eventually eased her into the tub. He followed her in moments later, bringing his armor with him, and the moment he’d scrubbed it clean—which surprisingly only took a moment, the blood seemed to slide right off of it at the first contact of water—he turned his attention to her.

She submitted to it, letting him kiss and pet her gently, until she felt something scrape her cheek when he ran the back of his hand over it. She immediately examined his hand, and what she found had her swallowing down bile and shrinking away from him in the tub. “Bardock… your hand,” she whimpered.

The Saiyan immediately ran the fingers of his left over the back of his right and grimaced as he extracted the two teeth and the piece of skull embedded in the flesh; his beast was still riding so close to the surface that he hadn’t even felt it and he tossed the bone shard, bicuspid and the canine onto the bathroom tile without any fanfare before he started washing the punctures in the already blood-red water. “ _V’nu sh’ri_ , Koto _m’yo. Buh’tir_ ,” he rumbled when he scented how nasty the water had become.

Mako drained the tub before running fresh water, and once it was full again she summed up enough to courage to get some soap and wash Bardock’s hair, tears still spilling down her face as he nuzzled her and purred softly. “You saved my life, Bardock… thank you,” she whispered once he was clean and the tub was running fresh water for a third time.

“Why in the hell are you crying over that jackass?” He asked in exasperation as he wiped at her tears. “You should be glad that he’s dead, Koto. He was going to kill you, and he likely insulted your honor with whatever he was saying. If I’d understood it, I’m positive I would have killed him sooner.” When she just shook her head a little, Bardock wiped at her eyes with his uninjured hand. “Vy? Rubeus?”

“No,” she choked out, “I’m not crying for _him_ , Bardock. I’m… I’m just mad. About everything he said in front of everyone I know… and honestly, I’m mad at myself,” she sighed. “I should have shielded, but I took my training for granted. Gods, Haruka is going to kick my ass when she finds out I turned my back to an enemy and neglected to shield,” she managed in a weepy little chuckle. “And… I know it’s stupid, but… the tabloids are going to… to have a _field day_ with this,” she sobbed. “I’m going to be the fucking laughing stock of the entire planet; all of this is probably already all over the internet and popping up on the news channels as we speak!”

Bardock hadn’t a clue what she was saying, but he pulled her close and held her anyway, purring comfort to his mate as he nuzzled and nipped at her shoulder, his hands sliding up and down her back and his tail curling around her waist. “ _Hi’nah, r’sha m’yo_ ,” he finally breathed into her hair. “ _Hi’nah_. _M’kor m’eh_?”

“ _G’in, buh’tir_ ,” she whispered into his chest, and she didn’t move as he cleaned her hair of the blood in it from where he’d been carrying her, nor did she protest when he lifted her out of the tub, dried her somehow with his powers, and counted steps carefully to the bed.

“ _Hi’nah_ , Toki,” Bardock called out when he heard a knock at the door, guessing who it was just by the way he was knocking gently, his fist likely sore as hell from punching Rubeus in the nose. “ _R’sha m’yo_?” He purred as he kissed Mako’s forehead.

“Yeah?” She replied with a little sob.

“Joo no move. Jesh?”

“Kay,” she replied as he tucked her in under clean linens, her face burying itself in her pillow when he went into his own room to find some clean clothing. Mako heard Motoki’s voice in the next room after several minutes and whimpered softly at the thought of whatever news he was giving Bardock—likely he was doubling her guard detail until they were sure that Diamond wouldn’t be teleporting into the palace to kill her or her newest “bodyguard.”

Then her communicator was going off and she was wiping at her eyes, answering it even though she’d considered letting it go to her message box for a split second. “Usagi-chan,” she whispered the moment she saw her sister’s face. “Hey… and sorry.”

“For what?” The queen of the moon snorted. “I wept tears of joy when I saw Bardock smash that bastard’s skull in with a single punch. We even managed to catch them all and they’re on their way to you, along with a bunch of tears that Mina got out of me from telling me an awesome dirty joke. I should have just brought them instead of mailing them, but eh… now your sexy man can _feel_ his way for an extra week.”

“I’m sorry for causing such a problem for you with Diamond’s family,” Mako replied softly, not biting at Usagi’s attempts to make her smile. “And tell Haruka that I really don’t want to get cussed out right now,” she added.

“Eh, I already handled Ruka, don’t worry,” Queen Serenity assured her gently. “Tell you what, I’ll waste a good bit of power and—there, hang up,” Sere said when her voice was suddenly in the room, right at the bedside.

Mako accepted her sister’s embrace gratefully and cried into her shoulder, sagging in Usagi’s arms the moment she felt her light filling her with utter calm. “Arigato, imoto-chan,” she whispered. “I know teleporting this far takes a lot out of you.”

“Shh, Mako-chan. It’s never too much to comfort a crying sister. And hey, I’ve got something that’ll cheer you up. Wanna see?” Usagi asked with a little grin. When Mako nodded sullenly, Usa immediately turned on the little-used television in the room and flipped the channels until she was on the main Jovian news channel. “Listen, Mako-chan. The consensus is that your people _looooove_ Bardock! Leave it to a warrior people to fall in love with the idea of a ruthless warrior king!” She giggled.

Judging by Makoto’s darkening blush, she obviously hadn’t considered marriage… even though her people were already considering it for her. “Dear sweet Zeus,” she whimpered. “I haven’t even had sex with him yet and they’re already wondering who I’ll ask to design my wedding dress?”

“Hey, the Martians and the Uranians are already lining up for dibs on him if you get tired of him!” Usagi snickered, giving Mako a pat on the back when she just whimpered again. “Haruka said she’d actually consider him as a consort if you cut him loose! Her and Michiru are talking about having a baby, but they’d prefer to do it the natural way. Oh! That reminds me!” Usagi added quickly and seriously. “Have you heard from Setsuna at all? I tried to call her and ask about the time rift that brought Bardock here, but she’s not answering her communicator. And Haruka said that Setsuna called her a week ago, asking something about baby formula before hanging up really fast.”

“No, I haven’t… do you think maybe we should teleport there and check it out?” Mako asked, wiping at her eyes as she turned to her sister. “If she’s taking care of a baby…”

“Setsuna would have definitely called me if she needed help,” Serenity thought aloud, “and she’s not too proud to ask for it. But she is very secretive when it comes to personal matters. Heh… maybe she’s met a man that has a baby?” She guessed with a little chuckle. “That would definitely make sense if she’s not calling anyone.”

“Yeah, but births on Pluto are so low,” Mako replied worriedly. “I’ll try calling her later on… perhaps she’ll answer my call what with all the news on the TV.”

“Koto _m’yo_ ,” Bardock rumbled from the doorway, his nose up and sniffing the air curiously, taking in the scent of strawberries and a moonlit night. “Hoo… hoo dis?”

“Hang on,” Mako said, giving him a soft look that her sister didn’t miss. And Serenity was giving him her own little look, envying all those extremely fine-looking muscles rippling throughout his bare chest.

“Ok, I know I’ve only been a widow for a year, Mako… but if you don’t want him, I’m pulling rank on Haruka and Rei and calling first dibs,” Usagi giggled.

“Mine,” Makoto snorted, at which Bardock immediately chuckled, tipping a blind wink at both the women. Yeah, he knew they were talking about him, alright.

“Heh… joors, Koto _m’yo_ ,” Bardock purred. “ _Au t’uh f’ai m’yo? D’ha_?”

When Mako turned bright red as she booted up her laptop, Usagi snickered. “What did he just ask?”

“Never you mind that,” she replied primly, followed by, “ _f’ri v’nu sh_?”

 _Tonight,_ translated loosely. Bardock smirked towards her at that and nodded slightly. “All you want, baby,” he rumbled in Saiyan just as the computer translated.

“Well… _that_ sounded promising,” Usagi snorted, followed by a laugh when Mako turned impossibly redder. “I’m Mako’s little sister, Usagi. Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom,” she introduced herself, rising from the bed carefully in her gown to take Bardock’s hand in hers and shake it. “Mmm… is all of him that warm?” She teased.

“ _G’in_ ,” Bardock replied smoothly with his own little chuckle.

“Forgive my sister, Bardock,” Mako sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Her husband died in a training accident over a year ago and she’s always horny. I blame Minako’s influence—another sister of ours.”

“Sorry for your loss,” Bardock said sincerely. “The loss of a mate is very difficult for my people. You’re handling it admirably.”

Usagi actually blushed a little at that and sighed. “It was a marriage of convenience, honestly… I’d rather not get into it. But we were pretty estranged other than when we were trying to produce an heir. Endymion was in love with Setsuna—another sister of ours… but she didn’t reciprocate.” Bardock’s sheer expression of confusion and the way he scratched his head made her wonder if the computer was translating properly. “What?”

“You mated with him. How could he mate with you and want another woman? This is not possible… is it for your people?” Bardock rumbled, utterly perplexed by the concept.

“Ah… your people mate for life, period,” Usagi said in understanding. “Well, not so for some in this galaxy,” she added bitterly. “But don’t worry about Mako, she knows the real deal when she sees it. Whoa, wait a second… is mating like, the same as sex?”

“No,” Bardock chuckled.

“Bardock,” Mako whispered seriously, “what did Toki have to say?” She wasn’t surprised when the blind Saiyan snarled something out that the computer translated as a string of vulgarities, but she was quiet and patient until he finally ground the answer out through his clenched teeth.

“He was informing me of the cleanup downstairs, using my computer for translation. And when I told him how to dispose of the body, he yelled at me, called me crazy, and I nearly put my fist through his skull.” When both women raised questions over that, Bardock huffed in contempt for the deceased. “Traitors and cowards do not receive a funeral. They’re chopped into pieces and sent to their next of kin, unless they have a son that is an adult. In that case, for the most grievous of treachery—such as an attempted assassination on a queen hosting them—the traitor’s son is executed and chopped up and handed to his father as a constant reminder of the father’s shame. He is then exiled to live out his sentence in disgrace, with no way to regain his honor.”

“You’d chop up someone’s **_kid_**!?” Usagi yelled, genuinely furious at such a notion. “You would punish the child for the sins of the father!?”

“Call it a strong incentive not to betray one’s people,” Bardock replied evenly. “The _ch’ete_ was never used in mine or my father’s lifetime, Moon Queen. And _never_ on a male child that had yet to secure his first kill in battle. We were not a peaceful people, mind you, and we have no patience for those without honor or pride. A traitor is the worst of offenders, and a coward comes in a close second. Rubeus was both. He deserves to be sent to his next to kin, chopped up and stuffed in a trunk. And then he should be buried—no funeral pyre, so that his soul will never go to the gods.”

“Do it,” Mako said softly, cringing when Usagi shouted right in her ear in protest. “I’m serious. I’ll call Toki and inform him. We Jovians honor the battle traditions of other cultures, and this counts as such. Maybe Diamond and his family will learn to show a little more respect in the future. Just because his family is affluent does not mean that they are immune to punishment.”

“I’ll make the call since Toki won’t dare to argue with me,” Usagi groaned, “and then I’m getting out of here. You talk to your crazy blood-thirsty man while that computer battery’s still got some juice.”

“You have my gratitude, _cha ve’sh_. For sparing Koto more stress.” Bardock smiled a little when Usagi kissed him on the cheek and he caught a good whiff of her scent. “Too bad my oldest boy isn’t alive, he absolutely went crazy over the scent of strawberries… you could have snagged yourself a sexy Saiyan warrior, after all.”

“Mmm… if he looked anything like you, just seeing him in all his naked glory would have likely killed me.”

“He was notorious for his womanizing and his skills in the bedroom, so he very well may have, Majesty.”

The moment Usagi was out of the room, Bardock stripped and slid into the bed with Mako, knowing it was far too soon in the day for a nap, but hoping that she would get some rest, anyway. “You don’t smell afraid anymore. That’s good, _r’sha_.”

When the computer translated that last word to ‘beloved,’ Mako blushed and shivered with a touch of delight. Did… did that mean he…? “Um… Usa has a knack for making everything better. It’s part of her powers. Healing, calming people down, that sort of thing. She told me that her tears are already in the mail to restore your sight, too.”

“Good,” he purred as he found her with his tail and drug her up against him, his face burying itself in her hair. “Because I can’t wait to see how fucking beautiful you are.” He sensed her insecurity in the way she stiffened a little and nipped at her throat in reprimand. “If you’re half as gorgeous as you feel and smell, I’m not too worried about what I’ll see, Koto. Now… shut the computer and turn off whatever that thing is—“ he waved towards the TV. “—and get some rest. And if you’re not tired, I’m more than willing to wear you out with my tongue.”

“Later tonight,” she whispered. “I have a surprise for you.” She shut the computer then, just before he asked what she knew he would; he wanted to know what it was she had in store for him. “Nope. Not telling,” she chuckled, using the remote to switch off the television. “ _M’kor_ ,” she ordered.

“ _G’in, r’sha v’esh m’yo_ ,” he snorted as he yanked her down to his chest and closed his blind eyes, his tail looping about her arm trustingly.

#############################

Their nap wasn’t horribly long; Mako groaned as she answered her communicator and just found Minako beaming at her widely, every pearly white tooth showing as her eyes glittered with mirth. “Please not right now, Minako-chan,” she whimpered.

“So… has your hymen regrown after all these years, Mako-chan? Should I send you some of the elixir we use on virgin sacrifices to turn their pain to pleasure?” She laughed hysterically. “Or has your sexy— _ahem_ — _bodyguard_ already relieved you of such?”

“Mina,” she replied groggily, her voice still coming out as a whimper, “you know I’m not a happy queen when I first wake up, and you know it’s been a very stressful day.”

“Sorry.” Minako sighed and fluffed her hair thoughtfully. “I was just trying to cheer you up, Mako-chan. Ooo! Is that him!?” She suddenly asked cheerily, pointing behind her older sister.

“Hn. _V’nu sh_ ,” Bardock grumped. “ _V’nu sh’fr_ , Koto _m’yo_?” He added, dropping a tender kiss onto her shoulder before he slumped back down onto the extremely comfortable mattress.

“What’s _sh’fr_?” Mako asked, ignoring Minako’s squealing over how ridiculously sexy he looked and how she thought his voice and his accent was even hotter.

“Yes, definitely get that fine piece of ass to speak again for me!” Mina giggled as she fanned herself with her hands. “I can only imagine what that voice must sound like when it’s right in your ear and all full of manly, lusty thoughts!”

“ _Hiiii’naaaaaah_ ,” Bardock groaned into his pillow. “ _Rot sh_.”

“Mmm… he even sounds sexy when he’s bitching at me,” Mina snickered.

Finally, Bardock lifted his head a little and huffed when Mako asked him the same question again. “ _Sh’fr_. Joo more sist-ah?”

“Sweet Aphrodite… be still my beating—er, _not my heart_! Get him to say something else in Solarian, Mako-chan! That accent of his is _divine_ ,” Mina purred.

“Ugh, _rot sh’fr_. Fuck joo,” Bardock snorted in annoyance.

“YES, **_PLEASE_**!” Mina chirped excitedly. That got her a glare from his cloudy eyes and she just grinned and winked at a snickering Mako. “Not much of a sense of humor, huh?”

“He likes puns about meat.”

“Well then! Bardock, I will gladly take _all_ the meat you can offer, jokes and in the literal sense.”

                At that point, Bardock was honestly wondering if this woman was serious or joking, but judging by Makoto’s laughter it was the latter. “Vulgar woman,” he snorted in Saiyan. “Koto, I joors. Joo tell _sh’fr_. No… vat verd? Jike… giff. Hn. Give.”

                “Share?” Mako supplied. “Mina, I think Bardock’s telling you to shut up and that he’s not into sharing at all.”

                “Ah, a one-woman man. Pity for me, but lucky for you. We’ve got enough scandal on our hands with the Rubeus thing already. We wouldn’t want word getting out that you’re sharing your sexy man with the horniest queen in the solar system.”

                Mako watched the screen shift a little as Minako visibly flopped onto a pillow-covered bed and the goddess of love frowned at her. “What’s wrong?”

                “Nothing, just worried about you. Being serious for a moment, are you alright? I’m sure that whole throne room thing was pretty scary. You’re not hurt, are you? I saw the footage and it looked like you might have gotten singed.”

                “Nah, nothing worse than anything I’ve gotten with Rei. This one’s not much more than a sunburn, and I think Usagi healed it when she hugged me earlier. Bardock, let me see your hand,” she added quickly, taking it in hers to examine it. Sure enough, all three punctures had vanished without even a trace of scarring. “Yup, she healed that too, that was nice of her.”

                “She couldn’t have done his eyes?” Mina asked curiously. “I mean, I know from the moon to Jupiter’s a long hop for her, but…”

                “Usa’s tears have already been shipped, so I didn’t ask her to. It would be a big waste of power considering how much damage was done to Bardock’s eyes in the Great Storm. I’m frankly amazed that they weren’t blown out of his head from all the lightning strikes he took… let alone the fact that he’s still alive.”

                “Ha! The perfect man for you, Mako-chan! He can take your temper whenever you’re pissed and start flinging lightning bolts!”

                Makoto chuckled at that nodded, but then her com beeped and she sighed in exasperation. “The screen says it’s Toki, Minako. I’d better take the call; it’s likely important.”

                “Oh, ok. But you’d better call me and tell me how awesome he is when you finally sleep with him! Usa said that you haven’t yet, which makes me think you’re certifiably insane, but—“

                Click.

                “Damn it, I love Minako so much, but right now I really don’t wanna talk to her. Yeah, Toki?” Mako added as soon as she’d picked up on the other line. His grin told her something was going on, and that she was either going to laugh her ass off at the news… or curl up in a sobbing heap. Maybe both. “Dear sweet Zeus… what is it?”

                “Cookies. A **_lot_** of cookies. Outside the gates, all addressed to Bardock. Some by name, some just say ‘the new guard,’ ‘the new king,’ and there’s even one that says ‘for that smoking hot warrior dude.’ And it’s not just cookies, either. There’s cards and stuff and presents for both of you, and it’s starting to get a little overwhelming. And to top it all off, a lot of people are staying and waiting out in the public gardens… I think they want you to come out and address them, Mako. That and I think they want to see for themselves that you’re alright; more than a few have asked if you were hurt badly.”

                “Okay, curl up in a ball and cry, then,” she whimpered, waving off Toki when he opened his mouth to ask a question. “Ugh… I’ll get dressed,” she finally decided out loud. “Let me call you back, Toki.”

                “Joo good?” Bardock inquired, his voice soft and concerned as he scented her annoyance, nervousness and amusement all rolled into one.

                “Yeah, hang on.” She started up her computer then and ran the translator as usual, but this time she linked the laptop to her communicator so she could use it outside just in case it was needed. “Should have thought of this before,” she snorted. “Now just to put the computer in hibernate so it saves power and I can still access it, and… there we go. You still understand me, honey?” She asked as she ran the program and heard it translate.

                “Yes. What did Toki say that has you so riled? Is it something I can handle for you, Koto-mine? I am your servant, after all.”

                “Bardock, that is so sweet, but… you’re nothing of the sort, and even if you had your sight, I still wouldn’t throw you outside like that. You should probably come with me, though, since all the gifts they left are for you, and I _really_ hope you’re hungry. Cookies,” she said quickly when Bardock just lifted a questioning eyebrow. “It’s a Jovian thing… we um, give baked goods as gifts, sometimes weapons, flowers, other stuff. But someone offering you cookies means they want you to stay awhile. It’s usually given to foreigners that people like, or as a housewarming gift, that sort of thing. And for the record, I so love how this translator is only stuttering once in a while,” she mused aloud, pleased that he wasn’t asking her to elaborate on words.

                “You taste like cookies,” Bardock chuckled softly, gesturing between her thighs. “Does that mean I can stay awhile?” Gods, he wished he could see her expression when she went silent and he smelled her slight arousal and embarrassment perfuming the air. “Shall I get a taste before you have to go out and greet the masses?” He offered.

                “Tonight,” she finally replied, sealing the hoarsely spoken promise with a kiss. “But only if you let me get a taste of you, too.”

                “Koto, I made a blood vow to you to—“

                “Nope!” She said quickly, shutting him up with another kiss. “I order you to let me return the favor.” Mako grinned when he just huffed and she knew she’d won the argument, judging by his expression. “Oh, like you wouldn’t enjoy it, sexy man. Now… I’d better get up and get dressed before Toki comes charging in here, wondering what’s taking so long. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with him seeing me naked, but I get the impression that you’re the jealous type, Bardock,” she added as she pulled a casual long skirt and button-up blouse from her armoire.

                “Jesh,” he grunted in Solarian. “No shore.”

                “Share,” she teased as he slid out of the bed, her mind racing with all the things she was going to do to that gorgeous naked body the moment she sprung her little surprise on him.

                “Gah-eeeen,” he replied with a small, flamboyantly feminine gesture as he counted steps to the bathroom to retrieve his armor.

                “Maaah-Koto vaaant meet-uh!” Mako teased in return while she listened to him navigate the bathroom and locate his armor.

                “Keep it up and you’ll have it!” The computer translated when he called out from the bathroom, coming back into the bedroom a moment later with his armor in hand. “Koto-mine. Is it clean? Or is there something else I should wear to meet your people? I do not wish to embarrass you.” That last part was spoken with a touch of coloring to his face and his mind raced at the idea of making some sort of Jovian faux pas in front of her subjects. “Is there some sort of protocol I need to know?” He inquired a little nervously.

                Mako closed the gap and kissed him gently before giving his arm a gentle squeeze. “My people are a warrior people, Bardock. So just be yourself and I’m sure you’ll be fine.” But after she let him return to his room to find the pants Motoki had meticulously ordered for Bardock so he could find them easily, the queen of Jupiter realized that she was going to be asked an awful lot of questions outside that she wasn’t sure she could answer.

                Snatching up her communicator, she strode into Bardock’s room, but stopped dead the moment she heard him let out a loud growl. “Bardock? What’s wrong?”

                Licking his lips, the Saiyan got his beast under control with a great amount of effort and took slow, shallow breaths to keep from breathing in too much of her scent. “You can’t enter my territory,” the communicator translated. “A woman that isn’t family doesn’t step foot in an unmated male warrior’s room unless she wants to mate, Koto. I mean no offense,” he added sincerely, “but my inner beast is insisting that I mark you as mine if you don’t leave.”

                “Beast?” Huh, he’d mentioned that once before, hadn’t he? Mako quickly backpedaled to the threshold and was relieved to see him smile and nod at her. “Sorry, Bardock. I didn’t know. So… entering a female warrior’s room doesn’t indicate a request for marriage?”

                “No. A female warrior’s territory is her safe zone, unless indicated otherwise by her. If a male is going to claim her as a mate, he will almost always take her to his territory. Now, if she asks to be mated while they are having sex in her room, that’s a different story. As for my beast…” Bardock located some black pants then and paused as he tugged them on. “…a Saiyan’s inner beast is basically his basest instincts, only… sentient. My beast thinks and speaks with me, and while most of his suggestions are just that, he gets extremely riled over certain things. Like you,” he confessed.

                Sensing her nerves by the way she was shifting her feet, Bardock purred lightly, his own cheeks coloring as he turned his head in her direction. “Koto, I was not going to bring this up until after my sight was restored and I confirmed that I would have felt the pull for you—it’s a beast thing,” he added quickly, not wanting to get into that just yet. “The blood vow I made… it was to serve you and live for your pleasure, Koto. For two years… even though the way I worded it was really for life,” he added dryly. “But since I’m hoping you won’t hold me to a lifetime of servitude… when it’s completed, I would very much like to court you.”

                Mako was speechless when he stepped back into her room and pressed her against the wall just enough to let her feel his warmth through her blouse, and she blushed hotly at the idea of his proposal. Ok, yes. She wanted to fuck his brains out, take him as a lover, definitely. But what he was suggesting implied a _serious_ relationship and they’d only known each other for— _Oh please,_ she whispered to herself. _You’re already falling in love with him, Mako. Stop kidding yourself and just give him an honest answer!_

                “This isn’t courtship?” She asked softly. “What we’re already doing?”

                “It could be considered part of my blood payment, but… my beast is acting as if you are his mate,” Bardock admitted with a hint of embarrassment. “Would you like to think of this as courtship?” He asked, unable to hide his nervousness over the idea of being rejected.

                “Would you?” Mako countered, just as worried about answering ‘yes’ and discovering later on that he’d only been courting her as part of the blood vow.

                “Jesh,” Bardock whispered against her lips before pressing his own to them gently, his hand running through her unbound hair as he purred in contentment. “Mine,” he breathed as he drew away.

                “Um… sorry to break up the tender moment, but the crowd in the garden is only getting bigger,” Motoki said from the doorway. He’d been there since Mako had asked if they were already courting, and he’d kept completely silent as he’d listened and noiselessly cheered Bardock on. Sure, he and the queen had been lovers when they were younger, but he wasn’t jealous like he’d worried; Bardock clearly cared very deeply for Makoto and Motoki was fairly sure that the Saiyan would make her a happy woman.

                Amazed that he’d been so focused on the object of his desire that he hadn’t even sensed the other man’s presence, Bardock took a moment to answer while he fought down his beast’s urge to hurt Toki for interrupting and sneaking up on them. “I’ll get my armor on.”

                “It’s clean,” Mako assured him before heading to the door. When Bardock came back and gestured towards himself, she sighed and tugged on his hand. “You look great, Bardock. You’d look spectacular in anything. Now come on.”

                Motoki explained to him the protocol for this sort of thing while they went down the three flights of stairs, and Bardock was immensely grateful that the Jovian man warned him in advance about Mako’s people liberally hugging and touching her. On Vegeta-sai, that would have been an offense punishable by death, and even if the offenders had been family, it would have been reprimanded for occurring in public.

                Apparently Jovians were a warrior race, but one that embraced the good feelings as well as the primal emotions, and the more Toki talked, the more Bardock realized how much Mako loved her people and that they adored her in return.  It was even more evident by the loud cheer that went up the moment they stepped through some doors and he smelled fresh air and flowers; apparently they were in the public gardens.

                Bardock could feel the warm sunlight on his skin but briefly wondered if a day moon was up and full; damn, he was aroused again! Willing his cock to stay down, he kept his arm linked with Makoto’s as they grew closer to the clamor, but once he heard a pair of gates open, he was snarling and blindly turning in all directions when the queen was no longer by his side. “Koto!?” He barked out, flinching at the feeling and the scent of another woman hugging him and the sensation of dozens of hands patting his back, shoulders and arms. “ ** _Koto_**!?”

                The Saiyan relaxed the moment another woman replaced the first and he felt her familiar warm curves pressing to him and the delicious aroma of cookies and flowers invaded his nose, but he was still panting for air and fighting down panic when she asked him if he was ok. “Koto-mine… don’t let go of me. Please,” he whispered.

                Seeing what a blow to his pride it was just to admit that much, she decided not to tell him not to be afraid. Being touched and smelling so many other people was obviously wreaking havoc on his remaining senses, and then not being able to find her as a touchstone… “I won’t,” she promised, even as a few children tried to tug her away from Bardock. “Come on, keep a tight hold on my arm.” Makoto raised her voice to the crowd then. “He’s blind and he’s not used to being freely touched!” She informed them. “I’d hate to go back inside and miss seeing all of your lovely gifts, so if everyone could give Bardock his space, we’d both really appreciate it!”

                “ ** _He’s BLIND_**!?” Dozens of voices rang out at once, the sound so comical that Bardock actually snorted in amusement and cracked the tiniest of smirks despite his uneasiness. But then he was frowning again as a hush fell over the crowd, followed by a rustling, and Makoto’s silence only unnerved him further.

“Koto _m’yo, r’en_?”

The queen swallowed hard as she just soaked in the sight of the greatest display of Jovian respect that she’d seen since her coronation; all of the people were kneeling, their eyes fixed on Bardock, their right fists held over their hearts in a sign of reverence for his battle prowess. Of course they’d all seen the video of what had happened in the throne room, and she knew that Bardock’s speed and strength were amazing.

And to someone that hadn’t known beforehand, that speed, strength and constant awareness of his surroundings while blind only made him that more impressive to Mako’s warrior people. “They’re bowing to you,” she said softly. “It’s a very, very high honor, Bardock.”

Even the communicator didn’t spoil the moment as it translated emotionlessly, and once Bardock understood, he relaxed his rigid posture. “Make them stand, Koto-mine. I’m not a king.”

“You will be if they have their way,” she snickered when Bardock started gesturing for everyone to stand up. The hundreds of people did as he bade, but they all kept a respectful distance from him when Mako pulled him forward and led him to the front of the palace. “Dear sweet Zeus!” She exclaimed upon seeing the piles of gifts left for Bardock. “Well, you’re not going to be hungry for a long time!”

“Here,” she giggled, handing him a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

Not wanting to seem impolite to her subjects, Bardock took one and bit into it, his eyes slipping shut in utter bliss. “Koto,” he rumbled with his mouth full, spraying crumbs everywhere, “ish joo.”

Her eyes flew wide at that and she blushed furiously, remembering his mention of what she tasted like. “Um, well… by all means, I’m sure whomever baked them will be very pleased that you like them.”

“What’d he say!?” A woman asked from the throng of people just watching him shove a second cookie into his mouth.

“He said they’re his favorite,” Mako chuckled. “Chocolate chip’s a winner, folks!”

With that, the crowd rushed forward again and people were once more giving him friendly pats coupled with words of welcome and lightly embracing him, but Bardock managed not to freak out so long as no one separated him from the queen’s hand, whose fingers were tightly linked with his own.

By the time Mako had invited everyone to eat as well since there were more cookies, casseroles and baked goods than they could possibly eat, she had gotten him out to the main gate where most of the gifts were laying. “Wow. Bardock, there’s a _lot_ of stuff here for you.”

“We heard about the time rift, Majesty,” a man supplied from nearby. “A lot of the men thought to bring him things he might need since he was dropped in with naught but the clothes on his back.”

Bardock tipped his head in the direction of the speaker immediately. “Tank joo, _ge_.”

“Hey, it’s nice to have a woman take care of you financially, but we all know about a warrior’s pride and his desire to provide for himself,” the man replied. “And don’t think for a moment you’re not earning your keep, either; you saved our queen and should be repaid somehow… even if she’s already done that,” he added with a wink and a chuckle.

Bardock knew Makoto was blushing judging by her scent and he flashed both her and the random male a grin before someone else got his attention and handed him another plate of chocolate chip cookies, coupled with a motherly kiss to the cheek and a thank you. His beast was coming out a little then, and when Mako was suddenly separated from him, he let out a snarl, tracked her down with his nose and yanked her to him tightly. “ _M’yo_ ,” he grunted with a nip to her lower lip. “Joo no go. Need joo see.”

“Sorry,” she replied bashfully, feeling the way everyone was watching them with smiles on their faces. “It’s just my favorite part of the garden and the red roses are blooming. Here, come on,” she urged him with a tug to his hand.

Before he could say yes or no, the queen was pulling him along and placing his hand on something soft and sun-warmed, and Bardock obediently felt his way until he’d discerned that the object was a flower. “These smell like you too, when you’re not in heat,” Bardock rumbled.

Pretending like he hadn’t just mentioned her fertile time in front of a bunch of her subjects, Mako ignored the chuckles and winks as she carefully plucked one and tucked it behind her ear. “It’s a rose,” she informed him. “They come in all different colors, but the red ones are my fave. This part of the gardens is my favorite too,” she informed him. “When you can see again I’ll bring you out here to see how pretty it is.”

Stepping out of the shade with her to explore a little more and accept the thanks of the endless grateful people, Bardock noticed yet again how warm he suddenly felt. “Koto _m’yo_ , is there a full moon overhead on this planet, even in daylight?” He inquired.

Looking up, Mako nodded. “Yup. Europa’s full right now… Ganymede and Io, too. Why?”

 ** _Three_**!? This planet had **_three_** moons!? And they were **_all_** full!?

“Bardock, you ok, honey?” Wow, he’d suddenly gone awfully pale.

Gods, no fucking wonder it felt like the beginning stages of the burning! Thank the gods it was daylight and the sun’s rays were overpowering the moonlight that would have been beaming down at nighttime, or his lust for her would have been insatiable! “Fine,” he finally sputtered. Ok. It was three full moons; he’d dealt with four before on another planet and he’d been just fine. _Thank the gods I can’t see them and risk going oozaru, her people wouldn’t be too gracious towards me, then!_ “The moonlight can have a funny effect on my people sometimes, that’s all,” he informed her, deciding to give her the details in private.

Mako thought the press him for an explanation, but his expression told her that he’d rather not talk about it front of others, and for the most part he seemed just fine. Only… a little off, maybe. _If it was a big deal I’m sure he would say something right away._

#####################

Both of them flopped onto the bed with heavy sighs of relief once they were back in Mako’s bedroom, closing their eyes and just enjoying the quiet. Gods, that had taken _forever_! “I have never shaken so many fucking hands in all my life,” Bardock finally rumbled.

“Get used to it,” Mako giggled. “You handled it very well, though, I’m impressed. Especially when everyone kept asking about when the wedding is,” she added with a blush and a little sputter.

He’d just shrugged whenever someone asked him that question and had pointed to Mako, which had made the male enquirers all laugh and pat him on the back. The females had all giggled as well, and he frankly didn’t understand what was so funny. “Koto, vat ish veddin? Com-pooter no say.”

The queen of Jupiter couldn’t stop herself; she was laughing hysterically at that, tears of amusement running down her face long before she could finally answer him. “Oh—my—gods,” she finally choked out. “Bardock, don’t… don’t Saiyans have weddings? You court and everything, so surely there’s like, a ceremony or something when you mate!?”

“Ooooooh…” Bardock chuckled at that, understanding just what was so damned funny, and he was shaking with subdued laughter when he rolled to his side and located her mouth so he could kiss her. “They were asking me when I was going to claim you as my mate?” He asked in Saiyan.

“Yes!” Mako giggled once the communicator translated.

“No wonder they kept laughing at me whenever I’d point to you; I didn’t want to admit that I didn’t understand the question! I kept thinking that wedding might mean restaurant and that we were all going out for supper!”

Mako howled at that, hugging him tightly as she cackled uncontrollably. “While—while the bride might be—edible—I’m not—food!”

Bardock blinked at that and scratched his head thoughtfully. “Bride? _Br’ihd_?”

When the second word was translated into cake, Mako thought she was going to die. “Oh my fucking gods,” she gasped. “Can’t—can’t breathe—“

“Koto _m’yo, en au_?” Bardock asked in alarm, rising up to kneel over her as he examined her with his hands. “Vat? Vat bad? Joo _a’hir_?”

“No! Gods, no! Bride! It means the woman that’s getting married—being mated,” she exclaimed as she held her aching sides.

“Oh!” Bardock snorted, his mouth turning up in a little grin as he wished he could see her laughing. It was likely the most beautiful sight he would ever see. “I eat joo, Koto _m’yo_ ,” he purred softly. “ _F’ri br’ihd_ … cookie. _Buh’mor ad_ cookie _m’yo_?” He breathed in her ear as he pushed her skirt up to her hips and tugged down on the boy shorts she’d put on that morning.

“But… tonight… I wanted to—oh wow,” she whimpered when he just dipped down and gave her one slow lick. “Erhm… Bardock… tonight…”

Damn it, those three full moons were wreaking havoc on him, and it was only a few minutes into twilight! “Ish night,” Bardock countered. “Vant joo now, Koto.”

A few gentle sucks to the sensitive bud had her trembling and surrendering to him, but Makoto managed a single strangled protest that had him stopping just long enough to elaborate. “After,” she gasped. “I have a surprise for you, ok?”

“Mmhmm,” Bardock agreed with a throaty purr as he dove back in for more cookies.

Too bad for him that he wasn’t aware of the twelve full moons rising not too far behind the other three… but his beast was, and it was only beginning to rear its crazy little head.


	7. Chapter 7

Bardock hadn’t a clue where Mako was taking him as he tried to remember directions in his head, but the path she was taking was completely new to him. He just decided to go along with it; after all, it was a surprise and he was supposed to **_be_** surprised, right?

                It wasn’t until he scented fresh air that he remembered that the light of three full moons was illuminating the outside, but just as he balked he was out of the palace, unknowingly standing under the full near-daylight equivalent of fifteen moons beaming down on him. “Dear gods help me,” he breathed just before he hit his knees, his hands clutching at his head.

                And his beast was… _screaming_. Actually _screaming_! “ _Koto_ …”

                “Bardock, what’s wrong!?” Mako said quickly, checking him over with her eyes and ha nds. “Oh gods, you’re _burning up_!” Transforming to her Senshi uniform, she called upon her Jovian strength and lifted him into her arms, taking him to a tree and settling him under it, where he immediately sagged against the trunk and sighed in relief.

                “I can’t feel it as strongly here,” he gasped out, clutching tightly at his forehead. “Dear gods… one or more of those moons must be huge in the sky… Koto-mine, I need to go back inside or I’m going to do something very, very stupid. Or destructive,” he added seriously. “Or both.”

                When he started making gestures back towards the smell of the palace, Mako sighed and nodded. “Ok, but… bear with me for a second,” she said firmly as she helped him to stand. The queen of Jupiter then led him out from under the tree and towards the garden entrance, but the moment they were back in the moonlight, he was sweating and trembling once more. “Are the moons doing this to you?” She whispered. “You said something about them having a funny effect on Saiyans…”

                “ _Cha… cha’dra_ ,” Bardock groaned, pointing up. “ _Buh’tir_ , Koto _m’yo_. Vant joo… vant joo _d’ha_ … _buh’tir_.”

                A perfectly sculpted chestnut brow rose at that and she noted his massive erection. “The hell? Well, if that’s the case… _F’ri v’nu ch—“_

Oh dear gods, was she actually saying what he thought she—

                _“— au sh t’au.”_

No, no! If she said that out here in the moonlight, then he’d wind up—!

 _“D’in m’yo, ge._ Come on, let’s get you inside, Bar—DOCK!” The last syllable came out as a near-scream when he suddenly tackled her, and she let out a whoosh of air when her back collided with the garden wall, too surprised to say a word when he lifted her and she felt his bare cock pressing to her inner thigh under her skirt. “Bardock?” She finally whimpered, her hands trembling as her eyes focused on his strained face, his blonde hair, and how intense his cloudy eyes seemed as they bored into her.

                “ _T’uh au d’ha, k’sha m’yo_ ,” his beast growled, grasping at the piece of fuku that covered her sex. “ ** _D’ha_**.”

                _We can’t bite her,_ Bardock added weakly, knowing that he wasn’t strong enough to fight his beast under such overwhelming moonlight. _Just don’t force the bond on her… I want that from her willingly, with her informed consent. And for the love of the gods, **don’t** look up! We night not be able to see it, but we really shouldn’t risk it!_

                Thankfully, his beast had far more honor than most other warriors’ beasts, and it merely grunted at him before tearing a huge chunk from the lower half of Mako’s fuku, exposing her to the warm night air.

                The only thing Makoto managed to say was a strangled variation of his name when he instantly pressed his entry, and her legs wrapped eagerly around his waist just as he slammed inside of her, making her cry out in a mixture of pain and pleasure. “Ah! Bardock! Please, it—it hurts! _A’hir_!” She cried as he began taking her hard and rough against the garden wall, his cock pounding into her at what could only be described as a frantic and desperate pace.

                His only response was to turn them, and his beast stayed locked inside of her as he located the tree they’d been under by scent and took her with him right to it, pinning her to the bark instead, his renewed thrusting a _little_ slower and more careful—but no less desperate. “ _M’yo_ ,” he purred against her lips before claiming them brutally, his tongue dancing furiously with hers as her little whimpers of pain melted into moans of pleasure.

                Bardock could at least think past the burning sensation of the full moons and the eclipse so long as they were in the shade, and now that he was no longer being totally usurped by his beast he could concentrate on his chosen mate’s pleasure as he closed in on his own.

                Mako was trying to hang onto a shred of sanity as his overly-warm hands explored and massaged her breasts, her hips and her thighs, the dexterous fingers stripping her of any and all remaining clothing as he growled and purred into the searing kiss and took her a little higher with every smooth thrust. Gods, he was so fucking hot that it was unreal! It felt like he’d been baking in an oven, and the phrase ‘hot cock’ took on a whole new meaning as he continued to stretch and plunder her core with it over and over.

                “Bardock,” she whimpered suddenly as she tightened her legs around his hips and lifted herself up for a better angle, “right there! Yes! Going to come, honey, please don’t stop!”

                Oh, his beast definitely wasn’t stopping before she’d come for him; the queen of Jupiter needn’t have worried herself over that matter at all. When Bardock was suddenly thrown into the very recesses of his own mind, he knew that the eclipse had begun, but he heaved a mental sigh of relief when his beast didn’t take her any harder than it already was. It was riding out Makoto’s first climax of the eclipse as she moaned and spasmed around him, flexing and tightening and momentarily going limp in his arms.

                “As good as you’d hoped?” His beast whispered in her ear, to which she only whimpered in response as he took her down to the ground and laid her out on the grass. “Is this how you imagined me taking you, my mate? Hard and rough out under the full moons?” Mako cried his name again as she raked her nails down his back, her hips bucking into his sharply, and Bardock’s beast could only purr in satisfaction at hearing her pleasure. “Come for me again, woman,” he ordered softly, nipping at her throat, lifting her hips for a better angle.

                “Bardock—Bardock! I’m going to come again!” She whimpered helplessly, writhing beneath him as her sex began to quiver and tighten once more.

                “ _En_ ,” he purred in her ear as he felt his balls tighten and his cock quicken the moment she clamped down around him and cried out in ecstasy. Bardock followed her over the edge then, but he barely had time to recover from the onslaught of pleasure coursing through his veins before he hardened once more. “Damned eclipse,” he groaned as he bent his head to lavish her bared breasts with attention. “It’s as bad as the fucking burning.”

                Finally able to think now that he wasn’t moving inside of her, Mako raised her hand above them and used her Jupiter crystal to erect a shield of power above the palace grounds. She immediately felt him sag into her, his rough voice moaning out something unintelligible in pure relief. “ _En_?” She asked gently.

                “ _G’re_ , Koto _m’yo_ … joo _a’hir_?” Bardock asked as he simply caressed her skin and wondered silently what she’d done to make the burning sensation running through him stop in its tracks.

                “If I hadn’t been transformed, I would have likely been split in two,” she giggled. “But yeah, I’m good. So… the moon makes you ridiculously horny, I take it?”

                “The moonlight makes any Saiyan feel the need to mate, _r’sha_ ,” he replied in Saiyan, too exhausted to even put it in Solarian for her. “There’s no more moonlight… what did you do?”

                Mako comprehended most of that last sentence and pulled out her communicator so he would understand her in turn. “I used my powers to shield the palace grounds from any moonlight. I don’t know if it’ll effect the light from Europa when it reaches full eclipse, but—“

                “ ** _R’en_**!?”

                She just blinked up at him and stroked his forehead to smooth out the worried wrinkles. “Don’t tell me there’s something about eclipses for your kind, too,” she drawled out in mild amusement. Bardock’s confirming grunt made her chuckle, and she rose up to kiss him before detransforming back into her clothes once their bodies were no longer joined. “Guess we should be grateful that only three out of fifteen full moons were eclipsing, huh?”

                When a sound akin to something a helpless kitten would make erupted from Bardock mouth and he flopped down onto his back, Mako looked down at him in alarm and shook him lightly. “Bardock! Are you ok? _En au_!?”

                “Fifteen full moons,” he whimpered softly. “ _Fifteen_!? _And a triple eclipse!?_ ”

                “Oh…” The queen of Jupiter couldn’t help a little sarcastic grin when she realized why Bardock was so upset, and while she felt genuine sympathy for his distress, she couldn’t stop herself from feeling more than mild amusement. “Guess you should be glad that it wasn’t a full moon record breaker. A hundred years ago we had fifty-eight full at once. We’ve never had more than five eclipse at a time, though.”

                “Koto _m’yo_ … how many moons does this planet have? Dare I even ask? Do I even want to know?”

                “Sixty-seven.” The face he made had her flopping down beside him as she laughed her ass off, but when he growled at her she stopped, even though she was still grinning ear to ear. “Guess you’re going to be really horny if you decide to stay.”

                “No wonder my beast was screaming its head off in my mind,” he whispered in awe. “And I actually withstood that much moonlight without passing out, too… that’s more than a little amazing. And stop laughing,” he added with a grunt, “this is definitely not funny, Koto.”

                “Oh yes it is,” she purred. “Moonlight affects your people, and you managed to get dumped on the one planet in the solar system that has a ridiculous amount of moonlight fourteen hours a day. And for the record, fifteen full moons are kind of low. It’s not uncommon at all to have thirty of them in the sky.”

                Bardock was still overwhelmed by all of that, but he somehow managed to keep his cool as he pinched the bridge of his nose and thought. “Your shields will block out all the moonlight?”

                “Yup. Just over the palace though, I wouldn’t want to fuck up the tidal patterns or anything, you know. So you might want to stay on the grounds whenever the sun’s gone down.” Mako frowned when he did and sat up to study him worriedly. “Bardock, you ok?”

                “Better to warn you now, before I get my eyesight back… when my people see the full moon, we become moonbeasts. The oozaru, some call us.”

                “ _Cha’kio_ ,” Mako whispered, trying out the word when he uttered it once more. “Is that like… metaphorical, or do you actually become something else, Bardock?”

                “If I look at the full moon, I will literally transform into a hundred foot ape that will shoot ki beams from its mouth and destroy everything in its wake. Understand now why it’s so important for me to not look up?”

                Mako couldn’t help but shiver at the idea of him transforming into some unstoppable were-monkey and made a mental note to get thick blackout curtains for both of their suites by the end of the week. “Well, my monkey man, I think it’s time we headed inside; seeing all these full moons is giving me to heebie jeebies after hearing about your little ape monster problem. And since you’re naked…” The queen simply grabbed his arm and used up some power to teleport them to her chambers, which were only a hundred yards away as the crow flew, and she giggled at the sight of how dirty they were under the brighter light of her room. “Oh, wow… I am so glad I teleported us to the floor and not the bed. We really need a shower, Bardock.”

                The Saiyan vaguely recalled feeling mud beneath his hands when he’d taken her to the ground, but the entire incident was little more than a moon-induced haze for him. That made Bardock frown deeply and growl in frustration as he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the tub, where he let her fill it and he tugged her in to join him. “ _Mah’ni, r’sha_ ,” he breathed before kissing her tenderly.

                “For what?” Mako giggled. “It was fun, honestly it was!”

                Another growl erupted from his mouth and he shook his head. “I had planned it all out, Koto. The first time I took you, I wanted it to be slow and memorable. But instead, I wound up fucking you in a mud puddle under a tree.”

                Mako couldn’t stop herself from laughing at that. “Well, when you put it that way, I guess it wasn’t very romantic, but you definitely succeeded on the memorable part! Tell you what,” she added with a little grin as she climbed into his lap, “just think of it as payback for when I grabbed your tail in the training room.”

                “If it’s payback for anything, it’s for springing the _ch’f’ri_ on me during a triple eclipse,” he snorted as he located a washrag with his tail and began to attentively get rid of all the mud up and down her back. “Hn… the shower would be more effective for this, Koto.”

                Mako stood on cue and cut it on before helping Bardock to his feet, and in only a few minutes they were both squeaky clean. “You sure you got it all out of my hair?” She giggled.

                After a quick sniff Bardock nodded, but he stopped her from cutting off the water and pressed her tightly to the wall of the shower, his lips claiming hers gently while his hands began to explore. “Slow this time, my mate,” he breathed in her ear when she rocked her hips into his and whimpered for more. “I want us both to savor the pleasure.”

                Mako could only arch and moan when he fastened his lips to a taut nipple, but when his tail began to tease her mound she grew frustrated. “At this rate it’ll take all night.”

                “Precisely,” he purred as he moved to the other breast to give it his full attention. Bardock didn’t pull her out of the shower until she was panting and downright begging him to take her ten minutes later, and as soon as he’d dried them he found the communicator with his tail, snagged it, and told her to turn it off.

                “Why?” Mako asked in a soft, dazed voice once his tail was swishing around and spreading his pheromones.

                “Because,” he breathed in her ear, “I know how much my voice turns you on when you can’t understand me.” With that, he placed her on the bed and was quickly on top of her, and his mouth was doing funny things to her throat while his tail slid between her legs once more to tease the hell out of her. Then he stopped as his beast rose to the surface, the animal within him worn out and feeling ragged from the effects of the eclipse and so many full moons—but despite its exhaustion, it had something to say and something he wanted to hear in reply. “Tell me you’re mine,” he breathed in her ear. “I want to hear it, woman; to know that you’re mine and mine alone.”

                The Senshi of lightning swallowed hard when he looked down at her with those cloudy eyes that seemed to bore into her very soul, and when he simply waited for her to answer she choked a little just from the intensity of his stare. “S—sounds like an awfully big commitment…?”

                The beast growled at her in response to that, followed by a nip to her shoulder. “You released me from the blood oath, woman. Is this not what you wanted?”

                A second bite to her shoulder was just hard enough to bruise, and while Makoto knew that it should have hurt, she felt only a wave of pleasure running right to her core as a result and moaned softly at the sensation, rocking her hips into his. “What I want is for you to make love to me, Bardock… _please_ … we’ll talk after if you want. I… I can’t think straight right now…”

                His beast was having none of that, and it only growled at her again in mild anger. Was that the only reason she’d freed him from the blood oath!? Just for a fuck!? “I thought I meant more to you than that, woman. I thought I was your mate.”

                Her green eyes went wide at that and she realized that she was speaking with his beast, that it had somehow come the surface—hadn’t Bardock told her that it was sentient!? _I am so finding that website again as soon as he’s out cold,_ she told herself as she leaned up and kissed him, unsurprised that he wasn’t returning it. “That’s not what I meant, sugar…” Mako licked her lips and swallowed hard once more before she could find the courage to say the words he wanted to hear, words that she knew in her gut would be irrevocable, would somehow bind them forever… even if she hadn’t yet agreed to marry him. Without a doubt in her mind, she knew that by giving him claim over her, telling him she was his, she was essentially marrying him.

 “…I’m yours, Bardock,” she whispered in a nervous, trembling voice.

                The beast’s purr started up the moment he heard those words and he nipped her shoulder again, but it was a tender gesture of affection this time. That was when he finally cut off the communicator and set it aside; he’d heard what he needed to hear and now he was ready to please his mate and hopefully mark her if she’d allow it. “ _R’sha… m’eh t’uh au rad’ir,”_ he purred as the tail between her thighs went to work once more and made her gasp and arch in response.

                “Ok, you were right, it is _such_ a fucking turn on when you talk in that sexy ass voice and I can’t understand you,” she groaned out in response as his tail continued to slowly thrust into her. Bardock was loving her so slowly with his hands and his mouth that Mako fleetingly wondered if he was going to let her come when the furry appendage between her thighs had her spiraling upwards and moaning in ecstasy. But when he only growled something that sounded hot as hell and possessive at the same time, she fell into rapture, clutching at him as she moaned his name into a sudden, heated kiss.

                That was when she didn’t want to wait anymore, and her hand instantly went to the base of his tail and stroked and squeezed, and a loud groan erupted from his lips as he thrust against the inside of her thigh. “ _F’ri, Koto m’yo_ … sho,” he growled, his hands trembling as he fought down his beast, who was demanding that he fill her immediately.

                “I don’t want slow, Bardock… _m’eh t’uh au d’ha… r’sha_ ,” she whispered, the last word spoken after a moment’s hesitation. She had a fairly good idea that ‘beloved’ in Saiyan meant ‘I love you,’ and while she wasn’t quite ready to admit it in Solarian, the foreign word easily slipped from her lips. “ _Buh’tir_ , Bardock. _K’sha’or_ …?” She asked, unsure if she had the right word.

                “Patience, Koto,” Bardock replied in Saiyan as he bent his head to nip at her shoulder… only to find their positions suddenly reversed. He blinked up at her in surprise and was quite sure he’d find her face smug if he could see when she chuckled, but when she didn’t take him inside of her immediately as he expected, he growled softly. “What are you doing, woman?”

                “Don’t ‘sh’ me,” she teased before kissing him lightly on the mouth. “I think it’s about time that you got everything you deserved,” she breathed in his ear, noting the way her voice was making him shiver. Apparently she wasn’t the only one turned on by not being able to understand her lover’s dirty talk.

                Bardock wasn’t too sure what in the hell she was doing until she began to slide down his body, but once her intentions were clear, he and his beast had zero complaints and they both groaned softly when she began to kiss and lick at the head of his cock. “Don’t stop, Koto,” he urged, “so close to coming already.”

                “Wow, your voice is so sexy when I can’t understand you,” the Jovian giggled before diving back in and taking as much as she could of him deep in her throat. That was when he buried his fingers in her unbound hair and growled something else she didn’t understand, and she moaned softly in response, finding herself turned on more and more as she continued to move her head and the volume of his purr increased ten-fold. _Gods, I love it when he says my name like that,_ she thought as it flew from his lips just as he came.

                “ _Koto_ … gods… my Koto…” The was all Bardock could utter over and over as she swallowed every drop of his essence, and he went limp from head to toe while she licked him clean, his purr so damned loud that he could barely hear her little murmurs of delight. “Mmm… my Koto,” he sighed when she returned to straddling him and she began to kiss and nip at his throat. “ _R’sha m’yo_.”

                “ _En_?” Mako chuckled when he only held her gently, his hands aimlessly exploring her as he tried to see her through his fingertips.

                “ _G’re… v’nu en_ ,” he sighed happily.

                “Now will you please make love to me?” She purred in his ear. “I want you inside of me, Bardock,” she added sexily as she began to slowly rub her dripping sex against his. “I want to feel every inch of you filling me… I want to know that you want me as badly as I want you.”

                The Saiyan only caught a couple words as he felt his cock recovering from his latest earth-shaking orgasm, but her body language made it clear enough what is was that she wanted, and apparently she wanted it right away. “I _suppose_ ,” he drawled out with a snicker before flipping them smoothly and resting his weight on top of her.

                Mako got his tone and laughed, smacking his arm lightly. “Troll. Judging from that giant slab of meat between your legs, you want this, too.”

                “Meat? My meat, Koto _m’yo_? Joo vant?” He purred as he pressed his entry and reveled in the sensation of being inside of her. He had only flashes of memory from their time out under the moons, but this time he would be sure to remember every single bit of her as he gave her pleasure and took his own. “I had planned on tasting you several times before I claimed your body, you know,” he added wryly as he slowly filled her.

                If Mako could purr, she would have been when he gradually locked himself inside of her, and when he didn’t wait and immediately began to move she let loose a quiet moan, her hips rising from the bed to meet his with every slow thrust.

                That was when Bardock’s beast began to take over again, but it was a far, far cry from how overwhelmingly in control it had been only an hour beforehand. Bardock let it slide so long as it was in agreement with him about not biting her just yet, and his inner Saiyan was purring and growling dirty things into her ear as he flexed his hips lazily and reveled in her soft cries of ecstasy. “ _Ra’dir_ , Koto _m’yo_ ,” he purred happily when she began to flex around him, her body signaling her impending climax. “Vant joo come,” he added in her language when she began to whimper and writhe beneath him, her hands clutching tightly at his back and his hip.

                “ _Harder_ ,” she begged with a whine of desperation. “Please, Bardock, harder! I’m so close!”

                “ _F’ri, r’sha m’yo_ ,” he replied tenderly, capturing her lips for a brief moment. “Vant _uch k’sha’or_. _F’ri tapa’or_. Joo mine… giff _uch rada_. _V’nu uch rada_ ,” he added with a little possessive growl, unable to stop himself from nipping lightly at her shoulder, followed by a groan at the sweet taste of her flesh.

                Mako could only whimper at the sound of his words, her hand seeking out his tail to massage the base of it gently, and when his hips bucked hard in response and he groaned, she matched the movement with one of her own. “Yes, Bardock, yes—please! Again!”

                “Woman,” he grunted in Saiyan, “you’re pushing your luck.” He wished to the gods that he could see her, knowing that she would be an absolute vision of beauty as he began to kiss and nip at her throat and gave in to her desire to feel him moving harder. But it was a far cry from the fucking she’d just received in the gardens, and was definitely the closest Bardock had even come to making love in his life.

                And when she came for him, he groaned her name and gentled his movements once more, sliding his tail between them to massage her aching, swollen nub. “ _V’nu_ , Koto _m’yo_.”

                She could only reply with something strangled when she felt his mouth blindly seeking out a nipple, and when he began to suckle her slowly, his cock sliding in and out of her lazily as his tail fondled her, she felt herself spiraling up once more. “Come with me, Bardock,” she barely managed.

                His blind eyes rolled back at that, and he knew he’d have no trouble fulfilling her request should he allow himself to focus more on his own pleasure. But he’d already come inside of her once and knew that he needed to be more careful this time. “Koto _m’yo… br’at_?” He asked, one of his hands caressing her flat belly.

                “It’s ok,” she gasped, wrapping her legs tightly about his waist. “I won’t get pregnant, I’m on birth control.”

                Hoping he’d understood her correctly—though he wasn’t totally averse getting her pregnant if that was what she wanted from him—Bardock nodded and quickened the pace, his low, hoarse moans of pleasure mingling with her sharp little whimpers as she began to flex and quiver around his cock. “Koto… _m’eh rad’ir_ ,” he warned her just before he kissed her roughly.

                Her tongue was too occupied with his in order for her to reply, so she just moaned in response and tightened her thighs around his hips, now jerking her lower body into his desperately as his tail massaged her clit firmly. And then she was spiraling up, falling into climax, and if he hadn’t been kissing her the entire palace would have heard her scream of ecstasy as she came hard and long. “Bardock,” she gasped between kisses as she listened to him growl and purr while he erupted inside of her wetly. Mako kept her hips moving to ride out his climax, trying her best not to giggle at the way his purring was tickling her sensitive nipples, but when he slumped on top of her she lost control. “Tickles,” she managed, pressing her long fingers to where his purr was centered in his chest.

                Bardock could only chuckle at that and dipped his head to suck again, his purr intensifying to a point where he was vibrating lightly inside of her. “ _En_ , Koto _m’yo_? Joo vant me more?”

                “Always,” she replied, her fingers threading through his hair as he switched to the other nipple. “You want me again?” She added softly, still unsure as to whether he was doing this because of the debt—even if she’d absolved him of it.

                “Koto…” Bardock released her breast to look up at her seriously, wishing that he could see her so that he could know for sure if she truly wanted him. All of him. “I vant joo ven I coming. I vant joo ven I eat. Ven I _m’kor_. Vant joo now. In _sh_. In _f’ri sh_. Joo mine. I joors.” He hoped that was a good enough explanation, even with his stunted Solarian, but when he scented tears in the air he frowned. “Koto?”

                They were happy tears, and Mako couldn’t stop herself from beaming up at him. “Even when you’re already coming?” She giggled.

                “Jesh. Day. Night. Ar-vays.”

                His solemn expression made her tug him down to her for another long, passionate kiss, and when she felt him harden inside of her again she used her legs to hold him tightly to her. “Then I’m yours, Bardock.”

                “ _R’sha’or_?” He asked hesitantly, not sure what step they should take next. Should he court her…? Or was she giving him permission for something more?

No, damn it. He’d court her. Bardock was fairly sure that Makoto hadn’t had the pleasure of being courted in a very, very long time, and he wanted to give her that. Hell, he was still young enough to make it happen, anyway, and he’d likely enjoy it as well.

Mako made a face as she tried to remember what that word meant, but she finally smiled. “Sure, if you mean what I think you mean. Computer?” She suggested, feeling a little shy at the idea of having any type of discussion with him after they’d just so passionately shared their bodies.

“No. _R’sha’or_ … no mate. Joo… me.” He fished for the right words and sighed as he gestured to the way they were still locked together, followed by a tender, brief kiss. “ _R’sha’or_.”

                Warmed by the way his hands were caressing her lovingly, Mako sighed happily and returned the gesture, lightly stroking her hands up and down his back. “I love you,” she breathed into a nasty-looking scar near his heart.

                Bardock didn’t let on that he knew what she’d said—after all, he hadn’t heard those words before. But her tone conveyed more than anything what they meant and his purr gentled in response. “ _R’sha’or_ , my Koto? Joo be mine?”

                “Yes, Bardock, you may court me,” she chuckled before pulling his hips into hers, raising them in a silent request for him to take her again.

                “Vant more meet-uh?”

                “Mmmhmmm… _f’ai ta’u, buh’tir_.”

                “It had better be mine,” he replied with a little snort in Saiyan before he began the process of pleasing his future mate for the rest of the night.

###########################

                Motoki wasn’t surprised at all to find the queen curled up tightly with her bodyguard, both of them lying naked on top of the sheets, and after a quick widening of the eyes at the glimpse of Bardock’s equipment, he let himself out. “Damn… no wonder we could hear her crying out all the way in the guards’ quarters.”

                “Why is it no wonder?” Nephrite asked with a little grin. Even he had to admit that he was more than a little jealous about Mako taking a lover, but if Motoki could be so damned gracious about it, then he could be as well. He had sorely wanted the queen as his own for centuries, but he would always be her friend before he would ever hope to be anything else. And he was happy that she was happy.

                “The man’s hung like an elephant when he’s hard, and right now he’s got a mad case of morning wood.”

                Nephrite choked on that answer a bit, reflecting that Makoto had likely done some choking of her own, but he wound up laughing softly as Toki led him back up the hallway. “Well, then… good to know that he can thoroughly pleasure the queen with little to no effort. And if he is right now as you say, we’d best give them a couple more hours. He’ll likely wake her up for more. Dragging him out to the gates to receive more gifts and cookies from the masses can wait.”


	8. Chapter 8

“Damn it all to hell!” Mako hissed out quietly between her teeth. “How in the hell could the server be overloaded!? It’s not like—“ She choked on that statement as the reality of what had probably happened dawned on her; she was taking a Saiyan as her king… and the website she’d been visiting was likely overloaded with everyone in the solar system hunting for information about her future spouse’s people.

                No wonder she kept getting errors whenever she tried to visit it once more.

                “Looks like this is a job for Ami,” the queen of Jupiter sighed, shutting her laptop with a soft click. Maybe her sister could trace the site…or something. _Whatever_ the queen of Mercury did when she was looking up stuff for their sister on the moon.

                She was about to call Ami when she felt a hand ghosting over one of her thighs, and Mako smiled as she glanced beside her to find Bardock smiling sleepily, his eyes still closed. “Morning,” she whispered, her voice actually sounding a little shy.

                “ _En sh_ ,” Bardock rasped, still with one foot in dreamland and one foot out. “ _En sh… en sh_ ,” he added with a little grin. _Good morning… good woman._ He knew she’d gotten the little joke when he heard her giggle, and he responded by drawing her back down into the bed with him, wrapping his tail around her possessively. “Fuck, Koto _m’yo_?” He breathed in her ear as he pressed an impressive display of morning wood against her lower belly.

                When he heard the barely perceptible whispering of her tongue over her bottom lip and scented her arousal, Bardock’s purr hitched seductively and he drew one of those long, muscular legs over his hips, then pressed his entry. “Joo vant me, Koto?”

                “Yes,” she replied just as he pushed forward and her hips instantly rocked into his. Mako let out a cross between a moan and a sigh when he filled her; it felt wonderful having him inside of her, and she stopped him from moving for a moment just to savor the experience.

                “Koto _m’yo, au a’hir_?” Bardock asked gently, concerned that he’d really beat it up the night before.

                “ _F’ri a’hir_ ,” she giggled. “ _M’eh en. V’nu… v’nu en_.”

                Bardock just chuckled at that, getting her meaning, and relished her soft moan of delight when he withdrew and thrust back into her slowly. “ _En_?”

                “Mmm!” She squeaked, her nails digging into his back the moment he moved again and didn’t cease the careful rocking of his hips. “ _En_?” She asked in turn when she heard him grunt and felt his fingers mimicking hers, clutching tightly at her back.

                “Sho goot,” he purred in her ear. “Joo come, Koto _m’yo_ , need joo come.” Gods, how did he communicate that he was moments away from totally losing himself inside of her?

                Bardock moved harder then, shifting his weight so that she was on her back and he on top, then kissed her heatedly, growling and purring all at once as he drank in her moans of ecstasy. And when he thought he couldn’t hold back another moment he felt her tighten around him fiercely, her cry of rapture echoing into his mouth, and he let go with an equally loud yell.

                “Mmm… flattered that I could get you off so quickly,” Mako sighed as soon as she could think coherently. Feeling lazy, she didn’t bother to snag her communicator off the floor from where it’d landed at some point during their coupling the night before, and instead she searched in her head for the right words. “ _Cha… cha’dra_?”

                “No, thank the gods,” Bardock muttered in Saiyan. “Koto, if I was feeling the effects of the moon, I’d still be fucking you. Neither of us would’ve slept all night,” he added with a chuckle. “Now, I’ve got to hit the head, and then I have a mind to stay in bed with my emancipator the rest of day.” He rolled out of bed then, did his business, but when he returned he heard her up and moving and throwing on clothes. “Koto?”

                “Toki called while you were in the bathroom,” she giggled after turning on the communicator. “It seems our violent savior has more adoring fans that wish to meet him and give him cookies. Oy… and fair warning,” she added with a bright blush that he couldn’t see, “apparently… they heard us all the way out in the _public_ gardens last night. Just so you know, we were in my private flower garden, about two hundred yards away.”

                Bardock busted out laughing at that and grinned so boyishly that Mako was a little starry-eyed by how young and vibrant he suddenly appeared, and not for the first time she found herself wondering just how old he was. So she asked.

                “How old do you think I am?” He replied saucily as he began to use his nose to locate some clothing.

                “Dear gods, you’re as bad as a woman,” she giggled teasingly. “Am I going to regret any answer I give you?”

                “Not if you tell me your age,” he teased right back, pulling her to him for a little kiss. “I’m twenty-five. How old are you, Koto-mine? Is your hair gray? Was I fucking a woman old enough to be my grandmother last night?”

                “Oh. Wow. Actually… yes, you are,” she replied a little shyly. “You see… the royal houses of this galaxy don’t really age. So… I’m a little over two thousand years, give or take.” The look on his face was priceless, and Mako later reflected that she wished she would have had a camera so that his expression of utter shock could have been captured for all time. “Yeah… pretty old. Sorry,” she whispered self-consciously.

                Bardock didn’t recover until she tried to pull away, but considering his level of surprise, he did fairly well as he jerked her to him tightly and kissed her forcefully. “Woman, you could have one foot in the grave for all I care,” he breathed in her ear once he finally broke away. “You’re mine. It’s as simple as that.” The Saiyan warrior was amazed that they didn’t have a mating bond, because right then he swore that he actually felt love coming from her.

                Perhaps it was his own.

                “So, are all old ladies on this planet grandmothers that I’d love to fuck?” He asked nonchalantly. “Or just your sisters?” Bardock felt her smile against his lips and chuckled. “Is the hair between your thighs white as snow, Koto? I could always dye mine to match. Heh… snowballs,” he snickered.

                “Ok, now _your_ age is showing!” She giggled, but stopped laughing just as soon as she’d started, her face serious. “Bardock… how long do your people live?” She asked hesitantly.

                He couldn’t help but purr in comfort as he feathered kisses down her throat and reflected that he’d happily take whatever time he could get with her if their roles were reversed, but luckily for the both of them, his people were long-lived as well. “The few scholars that we had on Vegeta-sai said that we’d probably live for a thousand years if we weren’t killed off in battle. But truth be told, no Saiyan has ever died of old age, so _no one_ knows for sure. My father was one of the oldest Saiyans ever to live since he was a pirate and not a full-fledged warrior, and he only lived into his five-hundreds. And he wasn’t even gray. Most of us are dead by our fifties unless we’re incredibly strong or incredibly lucky.”

                His people quite obviously had lived hard and fast, and Mako surmised that it was the reason for his level of maturity, even though she’d seen a couple glimpses of his true age that morning. “We’ve never had a Jovian royal die of old age either, since we’ve never been at peace long enough to find out, but I suspect we live as long as Lunarians or Venusians. Definitely not Plutonians,” she added with a giggle. “My sister Setsuna is pretty much immortal, as is her father. She’s an old lady already, even by our standards. She’s already over nine thousand,” she confided with a little whisper in his ear. “But if you ever meet her, don’t you dare bring it up; she’ll Dead Scream you into a wall.”

                Bardock was stuck on one thought as she told him all of that, and while he thought it might be a little soon in her culture to bring it up, he really wanted to know an answer for sure. “And how long can your kind bear children?”

                “Um… did you want some?” She squeaked, blushing brightly.

                “Don’t you?” He countered, his hand caressing the flat of her stomach and then her hips. With a tiny knowing smile, he nipped at her shoulder and purred. “Saiyans died often in battle, Koto-mine. When courting a prospective mate, the subject of offspring is breached almost immediately. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

                “No, just a bit of a culture shock… my people typically don’t broach the subject until they’ve been betrothed for several years. Hell, Nephrite and I dated for a couple decades and he never even brought it up. Then again, it was sort of one of those things that we both just assumed would happen if he ever became my husband. Being queen and all, I have to produce an heir.”

                “Well, then. Let me know when you want to make a prince, my Koto. Until then, I’m sure we can benefit from some brat-making practice. Lots of it. I’m thinking four or five sessions a day.”

                Mako could only swallow, but before she could respond, her communicator went off and she chuckled at the sight of who was calling. “Your ears burning, Setsuna? I was just telling Bar—Setsuna, what’s wrong?” She asked fearfully. Setsuna looked anxious, and when Setsuna was anxious, shit usually went badly for everyone. “Did your father see something at the Gates?”

                “I have Saiyans, too!” She blurted out. “You know I never watch television, but Broly was watching it this morning and he started yelling for his father and then for me and then I saw you and Bardock and he’s **_Saiyan_**!” A full thirty seconds passed, but when Mako continued to gape, Setsuna’s face got red from her excitement. “Damn it, Makoto, say something! Tell me what’s going on with your Saiyan, how he got there, and what he’s like! I’m about to go out of my fucking mind over here! I’ve got two of them and they’re both trying like hell to climb into my vagina!”

                Instead of responding to her sister, Mako turned her head slightly to study Bardock, who was clearly trying to understand the conversation, but wasn’t catching enough of it to comprehend. Probably because Setsuna always talked so rapidly when she was excited. “Bardock, Setsuna _sh’fr_. _Ve’sh_ Pluto. Saiyan _ge_. Pluto.”

                Bardock’s face lit up at that and his eyes widened as he felt for her hand and found her communicator. “Koto sis-tah. Joo haff Saiyan _ge_? **_Hoo_**!?” There was silence on the other end of the line for several beats, but then he heard a voice he remembered all too well.

                “Oh dear sweet gods, it’s YOU,” a deep voice rumbled. “Now I _know_ I’m in hell.”

                “ASSHOLE!” Bardock snapped right back, too furious with his old commander to even care that there was another living Saiyan actually speaking to him. “I TOLD you what Frieza was going to do to us and you just… you just IGNORED me! What the fuck is **_wrong_** with you, Paragus!?”

                “I told you so’s aside, the king ignored me just as much when I pleaded with him for the life of my son, Bardock, so shut up! I was awaiting his decision on Broly’s fate when you came with the news about Frieza, so whether I believed you or not, I sure as fuck wasn’t going to say anything to piss Vegeta off even further!”

                Bardock frowned deeply at that, his tail thrashing from side to side as he recalled Paragus’s fate only hours before Frieza’s attack. “I’m sorry for the passing of your son, Paragus,” he rumbled sincerely.  “I know how hard the loss of a son is… how are you holding up?”

                “Excellent, Bardock. Thank you… because Broly’s isn’t dead,” he informed him with a genuine smile, all anger forgotten. “This woman here, Setsuna, she saved our lives when we suddenly appeared in a storm on her planet, and while I was unconscious for several weeks from my injuries, she nursed Broly back to health. Hn… you’re blind,” he added, just noticing the milky quality to Bardock’s eyes.

                “Yeah, I was blinded by all the lightning in the storm here; I crashed into what Koto calls ‘The Great Eye.’ It’s this giant hurricane that’s been going on for centuries. Treatment for my eyes is on the way, though, so I’ll be able to see again soon. And then I’m going to look Koto in the eye and finally find out if I would have felt the pull with her to begin with,” he snickered. “And then… pull or no pull, she’s getting bitten and fucked into the floorboards.”

                Paragus laughed at that and looked to the side, where Setsuna was rocking Broly and tickling him just to wipe that ever-present serious look from the baby’s face. “I felt it with Setsuna, but… she’s not exactly cooperating.”

                “Wake her up with an orgasm?” Bardock suggested.

                “Already tried that,” he replied with a sputter. “She wasn’t exactly happy to see me at first, but I figure I’ll continue to try. After all, I don’t actually want to seem pushy since she saved Broly. Your hair looks awfully tousled, even for you. I take it you’re having more luck courting your woman than I am.”

                “Oh gods, don’t even get me started on last night,” Bardock groaned, using his tail to find the edge of the bed to sit down. “This gods damned planet has sixty-seven fucking moons, Paragus. SIXTY. SEVEN.” He didn’t need to see his commander’s face to know that the man was in shock from the news, so he continued. “And last night, fifteen of them were full. That’s not the best part, either! Not only was there a triple eclipse, but it’s common for as many as thirty of their moons to be full at all times! My beast was screaming its fucking head off out in the moonlight, and then Koto springs the fucking _ch’fri_ on me!”

                “Dear gods, boy… did you break her vagina?” Paragus whispered in awe. “I’m fucking amazed that both of you are alive.”

                “Luckily, she transformed to carry me into the shade. Everything’s a little hazy after that, honestly, up until we made it back inside. She doesn’t seem to be hurt, though, thank the gods. In fact, she was quite enthusiastic about thirty minutes ago,” he chuckled. “She’s tough, my Koto. She comes from a warrior people not unlike our own. So… you any worse for wear after dropping into the future? Wait, Setsuna did tell you that we’re in the future, right? That Vegeta-sai is gone and that even my sons and our prince are dead?”

                There was a long silence, and Bardock sighed when he heard a choked sound come from the other end of the communicator. “Me and my big fucking mouth,” Bardock spat. “Damn it, Paragus, I’m sorry. I could have broken that to you more gently.”

                “How did they die?”

                “The king… probably in the explosion of the planet. The others, I honestly don’t know. I know that all of my boys were off-world when it happened, along with Nappa and Prince Vegeta. Maybe a few others,” he added slowly. “I don’t know for sure.”

                “So, we’re all that’s left,” Paragus replied with finality. “So be it. I might as well be grateful that my son was spared such a fate. How far into the future are we?”

                “About ten thousand years, give or take. One of Koto’s sisters, Ami, figured it out. She’s on some planet called Mercury; by the way Koto spoke, it’s the closest to the sun.”

                “Ah, that explains why Suna was cursing about trying to call Ami. Pluto is the farthest out in this solar system. Quite the distance for communications. So, your blindness is only temporary? I lost an eye when we crash landed into a thunder blizzard.”

                “Heh… I’ll get you a nice eyepatch, then. Something frilly and pink to match your inner woman, Paragus.”

                Paragus cackled at that and gave Bardock the finger. “Yeah, yeah, puppy. Send it my way and don’t be surprised when I send your sightless ass a walking stick.”

                “Don’t tempt me, old man. And speaking of old… are you aware that your mate is nine thousand years your senior? So watch who you’re calling the puppy.” Bardock laughed heartily when he heard Paragus choke a bit on the other line. “Does she look her age?”

                “SHE’S OVER NINE THOUSAND!? I thought she was only in her twenties! I thought I had a decade on her! Pht… well, at least now I won’t feel like an old man around her, I’ll admit that it was part of the reason I _hadn’t_ broken out a full-scale seduction.” Paragus whistled softly in disbelief after a couple for moments and shook his head in wonder. “ ** _Nine thousand_** … you sure, boy? Because whenever she’s around me, I could swear that she’s a terrified sixteen-year-old virgin.”

                “Heh, Koto’s a quarter her age and wasn’t even close to timid with me. Ok, a bit shy at first when I offered myself as blood payment, but—“ He’d heard Paragus give the slightest gasp and blinked blindly at the screen. “What, Paragus?”

                “Your hearing’s gotten excellent, Bardock… but when you said blood payment it gave me an idea. How did she take that kind of offer? Should I try it?”

                Bardock chuckled and shook his head. “It’s your choice, Paragus, and our circumstances are likely different than yours and Setsuna’s. I caught her coming out of the shower, made the vow, and then gave her the good ol’ Saiyan kiss right away. Wait, why am I advising you, anyway!? You’re the one that did all that courting shit with Sera instead of kicking her ass like I did with Romayna! You’re the mighty scholarific non-warrior out of all of us, so just do your thing and put the moves on her!”

                Paragus sighed at that, but at least he was smiling. “I wish it were that simple, my friend. We’ll see. Hey, I can see your woman behind you; my, my if she isn’t quite the vision of loveliness. Want to know what she looks like?”

                “Thank you, but… no. The offer’s tempting, but I want to wait until my sight returns. I already know that she’s beautiful.”

                “Aaaaw, I think she understood you, Bardock. She’s blushing,” Paragus teased. “Tell you what… I’m going to get off this line so I can go chase Suna’s skirts, and I think you should turn right around and take her the moment we hang up. I’ll call you in a couple days.”

                “Talk to you then, Paragus.” Bardock turned and extended the communicator then, a smile playing on his lips. “ _D’in m’yo,_ Koto.”

                “Welcome. And gods, while I can’t blame you, you were quite the Chatty Cathy,” Mako teased when he gave her back her communicator and she turned the translator back on. “So, his name is Paragus? I could only catch a bit of the conversation. Who’s Broly?”

                “Paragus’s boy; the king had ordered the brat’s execution due to his insanely high power level, but apparently Broly shielded himself and his father. I think that’s what brought us here, Koto; the backlash of Frieza’s blast against our shields. I assume that everyone on Vegeta-sai would have at least raised basic ki shields, though… I can only guess that being brought here had something to do with the amount of power that was used. Ami might be able to figure it out… I’m a scientific engineer, not a physicist.”

                “Scientist?” Mako asked curiously. “Really? I would have never guessed.”

                “I’m a warrior first, my Koto,” he chuckled. “But yes, I have some extra skills that the crown found useful, such as creating artificial moonlight on planets we were laying siege to. I was working on a few other things back home as well, but without my eyesight or my equipment, it’s pointless to hope of ever finishing them,” he finished with a shrug.

                Mako felt bad for him, but she was stuck on something else he’d said, his tone implying that it was some sort of commonly accepted occurrence. “Your people killed children for being too strong?”

                “No… Broly was an exception to the rule. His power was so high that it would have been a danger; a Saiyan builds that kind of power as he fights and grows—he isn’t _born_ with it. The king was concerned that that kind of power would make the boy insane at an early age.” Bardock sighed and shrugged. “It is what it is, Koto. I didn’t agree with it in the least, but I was so concerned with making the king believe that we were **_all_** about to die that I couldn’t focus on just one life. If it weren’t for Frieza, I would have taken up Paragus’s cause as well. Rarely does a Saiyan father outwardly care so much for his spawn, and since Paragus had just lost his mate to the same illness that I had lost mine, he deserved all the support he could get.”

                The queen of Jupiter sighed and felt a little uneasy as she sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his waist. “How long ago did your mate pass away?” She asked gently. “To you, I mean. How long has it been for you?”

                “A little over six months. It was an illness that effected only those that were pregnant. Sera passed away shortly after and Kakarot and Broly were removed and put in incupods. They were officially born the same day.”

                “Six months… Bardock, I don’t want to question what I feel for you, but… isn’t that a little fast?”

                “I’m Saiyan,” he grunted. “Six months is far more than my people usually mourn, Koto; I cared for my mate, yes, and I deeply mourned her passing and the loss of the mating bond, but wallowing in misery will never bring her back. I’m still alive and I have to keep living.” He scented her tears then and frowned. “You… have a problem with this, Koto? Do you wish for me to back off?”

                “No, it’s not that. You’re just so much stronger than I am, Bardock. If I’d lost everything you had, I don’t think I could have picked myself back up from it. Ever. Your sons must have been something as well.”

                “Heh… they were. My only regret is not holding my youngest, even though they were about to send him off to another world. I think I was afraid, honestly. I saw him once through the glass, and while he looked just like me, he had the look of his mother in his eyes. Now Raditz, my oldest? That boy was the spitting image of Romayna. All that damned hair!” Bardock chuckled. “And the boy was horribly vain about it, too, Turles would pick on him and tell him his shampoo made him smell like a girl.” He sighed at that, trying not to feel sad, and warmed when he felt Makoto squeezing his hand.

                “How old were they?”

                “Raditz was ten and Turles eight. I thank the gods that they got to live their lives, even if I couldn’t see them do it. Raditz was with the prince on Frieza’s ship, and Turles was off with his maternal grandfather, learning the shipping trade. Kakarot… well, we already know that he defeated that purple-skinned prick. That makes it all worth letting him get sent to Earth.”

                A silence settled over Bardock then, and Mako could have sworn she felt his grief wash through her, so she squeezed his hand and kissed his mouth tenderly. “Come on, honey, let’s go outside. Toki said that the people brought more cookies and gifts for you, and I think that you could use a distraction.”

                Bardock allowed her to lead him downstairs then, and a distraction was quickly provided when he smelled an unfamiliar male coming far too close to her, addressing her as if he’d known her for years. “Koto?” He growled softly, his tail lashing about behind him in agitation. “Hoo dis? No Toki.”

                Noting the motions of his tail with an understanding smile, Mako immediately stepped back from her visitor and gave him a wink. “Bardock, this is Nephrite. Nephrite, this is Bardock. Bardock, I know I told you that Nephrite and I used to be an item, but I neglected to inform you that we’re still good friends; I’m sure he decided to come by when he heard about you,” she snorted.

                The Saiyan couldn’t see it, but he knew instinctively that the other male was sizing him up in the two seconds of silence that followed. “Koto mine,” he rumbled softly in warning, searching for the right words and coming up short. So he settled with the most Saiyan thing he could say and hoped that he would get his point across to the male that smelled like fire and lightning. “Joo herd Koto, I kill joo. Unnastan?”

                “Yes, I understand, Bardock,” Nephrite chuckled. “My, my… he’s quite protective of you, Mako.” He smiled then and nodded his approval. “That’s good. I’ll admit that I’m a little jealous, but I’m also pleased that you found a man that’s as concerned for your well-being as I am.” He turned back to Bardock then and continued to study him closely, still nodding slowly with approval at the sight of all those muscles.

                Muscles like that didn’t just grow on trees; they spoke of dedication to a warrior’s life and hard work. “You’ll be staying on Jupiter then, Bardock? You’ll make our planet your home?”

                “Koto _p’ue m’yo_ ,” he replied simply, letting the translator do its work. “Koto go, I go.”

                “Good to hear. Come on, let’s walk and talk; I’m not just here for a social call,” Nephrite informed them seriously.

                “Is there anything I should be concerned about?” Mako asked quickly as she took Bardock’s arm and they followed the Jovian general.

                “No, Mako, this actually has to do with Bardock, not you. And I’m not exactly sure how to put this, but… there has been a very interesting discovery on Earth.” Nephrite waited, and when Mako gestured for him to continue and Bardock’s blind eyes locked onto him, he started talking. “There was a website that dealt with all sorts of Saiyan mythos and had a fairly comprehensive guide to the language, but it was run on only a single server. That server crashed when the people of our solar system were told what his race was.”

                “I know what site you’re talking about, Nephrite, I tried to access it this morning and it was down. I used it before to find out about some of Bardock’s customs. So… it was hosted on Earth?”

                “Yes,” Nephrite replied. “And here’s the really interesting part. It’s been regularly updated over the last eight thousand years. I spoke with Ami, and—“ He paused and looked to Bardock with concern; the warrior had stopped in his tracks and had an indescribable expression on his face. “Bardock? Are you alright?”

                “Are you trying to say that there are Saiyans… living on Earth?” He asked in a hushed, disbelieving tone.

                Nephrite hesitated before gesturing for Mako to lead Bardock to a bench in the main entryway. “We don’t know anything for sure,” he said once Bardock was sitting, “but the regular upgrades to the site to keep it running, and the occasional update to the database itself suggests that someone that knows about the Saiyans is running it. They’re likely trying to keep their heritage alive, is my guess. Now… if your people are long-lived, like ours, there’s a remote chance that _yes_ , there are Saiyans living on Earth.”

                “But it’s a chance,” Bardock replied in a whisper. “My son… he couldn’t possibly still be alive, but perhaps his descendants… maybe even grandbrats born of a late offspring…” The possibilities were staggering and he shook his head in wonder. “Prince Vegeta was there, too, and had a son. Maybe… maybe they produced more children, and if their lines continued to interbreed… Nephrite, could you possibly contact these people on Earth?”

                “Already done. I left a message on the line attached to the website and gave them Mako’s communicator frequency. I’m sure they won’t hesitate to call once they receive the message. I already contacted Setsuna and she said that she’ll let Paragus know later today. He’s still reeling after seeing _you_ alive and well.”

                Bardock just nodded numbly, deeply overjoyed that some remnants of his kin were still alive, but trying like hell not to get his hopes up. Clearly, they had kept a record of their heritage and the language, so they knew who they were and where they came from… but they were all likely to be an eighth Saiyan at the most. Maybe more if the lines interbred, as was common on Vegeta-sai, but he knew that some alien races’ genes couldn’t withstand inbreeding like the Saiyans’ could.

                “Come on, Bardock, I think you need a distraction,” Mako said after waiting for a couple minutes, quietly letting all of the news soak in for him. “And as soon as they call, I’ll hand the communicator straight to you, ok?”

                “ _D’in m’yo_ , Koto.”

##########################

                “I have to say, I’m surprised,” Motoki chuckled as he watched the fight in the garden with interest. “I didn’t think they’d wind up being bros.”

                “Me either,” Mako agreed, flinching at the fireball flying at Bardock’s head. “But then, Nephrite’s had stranger friends than Bardock. And I’m sure that both of them being devout warriors doesn’t hurt, either,” she added seriously.

                “It also didn’t hurt to inform Bardock that Nephrite is happily married to Naru,” he mused in reply, grinning when Bardock’s hair flickered to gold and a punch sent Nephrite flying through a bush. “They’re destroying the roses, by the way.”

                “Ugh, don’t remind me, I’ve already had a couple of the gardeners complain, but I don’t have the heart to ask them to stop. I could tell that Bardock was tripping about having descendants on Earth, and I have to admit that Nephrite was a doll to suggest a sparring match. Even if he’s going to regret it in the morning.”

                “Yeah, I have to agr—WHOA! Damn, Bardock!” Toki yelled when a very unexpected light flew from the warrior’s hand and narrowly missed its target, leaving a little crater in the ground. “Try not to blow the fucking planet up, man!”

                “ _Mah’ni_ , Toki!” Bardock yelled back good-naturedly with a little shit-eating grin on his face. “Nephrite, joo vant _hi’nah_?”

                “Heh, if you’re asking for my surrender,” he coughed, “you can take it and shove it up your ass, Saiyan. Bring it.”

                “Heh… _en_.”

                “I think it would be better to fight someone more on your level,” a low voice said out of nowhere. Bardock immediately snapped around, his nose twitching as he realized that the voice had spoken in Saiyan, not in Solarian, and he tried to catch the newcomer’s scent.

                “Who are you?”

                “He’s… green,” Nephrite commented as he came up beside him, removing his jacket to wipe the sweat from his face.

                Bardock grinned at that and quirked a brow towards a grunt of annoyance coming from the new guy. “A Namekian?”

                “The name’s Piccolo.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know! It's been awhile! But I'm BACK! And guess what? It's a good thing I waited so long to update, since I can add some new DBZ characters to the mix. :D If you don't know what I mean, you'll figure it out VERY VERY soon! To those that are privy to this particular idea, it's "Mako-sama!" time in a chapter or two!

 “Piccolo, huh?” Bardock drawled. “What brings you so far from Namek? Don’t tell me you got caught in that gods damned time storm thing, too?”

                The tall green man seemed to study him for a long moment, along with the way Bardock wasn’t quite looking directly at him, and he huffed in frustration despite the brief, soft look that crossed over his face. “Gohan didn’t mention that you were blind,” he sighed, “but I have to say that looking at you is like looking at Goku. You’re identical except for the scar.”

                “Goku?” Bardock asked in confusion as he stepped closer, wishing for the millionth time that he could see just whom he was speaking with. It was only when he smelled Makoto coming to his side that he relaxed a little bit, automatically linking his fingers with hers when she took his hand to lead him around a rosebush that he’d nearly walked into. “ _D’in m’yo, ve’sh m’yo_ ,” he murmured in her direction, coupled with a tiny grin that he knew she could see.

                “Don’t give me that look unless you plan on putting out,” she countered in Solarian under her breath, keeping her voice low so that their guest wouldn’t hear her. Though judging by the way Piccolo was clearing his throat and turning a little purple, he had definitely heard her. “Sorry. You must have really good hearing,” Mako giggled. “Good to know that those ears are for more than just making you look adorable,” she added with a wink that only made him turn violet.

                Clearly stunned by the sincere compliment to his appearance, Piccolo stammered out, “um, well… you’re not so bad yourself,” before making a pained face at the sound of his own awkwardness, his violet cheeks shifting to royal purple. “Nevermind that!” He added quickly, turning to Bardock once more as he ignored another wink and a radiant smile from the beautiful Jovian queen. “Son Goku was the name given to Kakarot after he crash-landed on Earth,” Piccolo rambled out quickly in Saiyan, trying to get his feet back on even ground as the loveliest woman he’d ever laid eyes on turned back to Bardock, waiting on his response.

                “ _You knew my son_!?”

                “Heh, you could _definitely_ say that I knew him, yes,” Piccolo chuckled. “I knew him almost all of his life, in fact. That’s why Gohan sent me instead of coming himself; Gohan’s his great-great-great-great grandson and the oldest living Saiyan left on Earth, but Goku was already dead by the time he was born.”

                He could only recall his youngest son as an infant and he’d only seen him the one time, but Bardock couldn’t help the feeling of loss that overwhelmed him and sat down hard on the grass, his heart aching at the knowledge that his son was dead and his hand clutching the left side of his chest. It was one thing to know it intellectually, but to have someone confirm that his children were dead made his very soul clench in agony. “How… how did he die?” Bardock choked out.

                With a sympathetic smile, Piccolo brought himself down to Bardock’s level and patted his shoulder comfortingly. “Well, it began with a conversation between Goku and Vegeta when your prince found a few gray hairs one morning.”

#####################################

                _“Are you fucking kidding me!?” Piccolo barked down at both of them before rolling his eyes and vigorously shaking his head in a mixture of disbelief and simple annoyance when they both just shrugged and nodded. “You’ve **got** to be kidding me… … …right?” Another pair of shrugs made him analyze the situation seriously and he finally just rested against the tree behind him, surprised at his own level of emotion at the thought of… _

_“Hey, if you don’t want the grand honor of witnessing the greatest battle in the **history** of this pathetic dirtball, then we’ll find a different referee,” Vegeta finally spat out. _

_With a hearty slap to Vegeta’s back that only made the shorter man glare, Goku grinned and laughed loudly. “Vegeta, even **you** admitted that Piccolo would be the only one that could even keep up with us in action, let alone give an unbiased call on who won! Don’t be such a jerk when you’re asking someone for a favor!”_

_“You’ll both die. You know that,” Piccolo rumbled, his voice sad due to how seriously they’d asked him for the favor. They both meant it, he knew that._

_“That’s the **point** , Namek!” Vegeta cried in exasperation, throwing his arms into the air. “We want to go out with our gods damned **boots on**! I found a dozen gray hairs the other day and I’ll be damned if I die as an old, feeble man shitting his pants and gumming his food! I want battle and glory, and I want my grandbrats to be able to tell their grandbrats that their Paw Paw Vegeta went out like a fucking warrior!”_

_“And you, Goku?” Piccolo asked, his voice thick with emotion. “This is what you want, too?”_

_“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t,” he answered sunnily, only to frown at the sight of tears in the Namekian’s eyes. “Hey, don’t be like that, Piccolo. You know just as well as we do that Saiyans aren’t cut out for dying of old age. And isn’t this better than being forced to visit Vegeta while he dies slowly in a year or two? And then me a few years later? Honestly… I don’t think I’d be able to handle watching him die like that. Slowly. In pain,” Goku murmured, managing a watery smile for his prince when the shorter man gripped his shoulder and gave it a brief, comforting squeeze._

_Returning Goku’s smile with his own trademark smirk, Vegeta crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently as he regarded Piccolo. “Well? Do you want to do your friends a favor, or do you want us to call in Lord Beerus? He’s sleeping right now, so I don’t think he’ll be too thrilled about us calling him in as a referee.”_

_Damn it, Vegeta knew all of the right buttons to push; thousands of years of friendship had ensured that the three of them knew each other better than anyone ever could. “For my friends… yes. I’ll do this,” Piccolo murmured, blinking away tears at the thought of both of his only real remaining friends dying._

_Surprisingly enough, it was Vegeta that approached Piccolo first and embraced him tightly, and it wasn’t his typical, quick hug followed by a shove to get the other person off of him. It was a real hug and Goku quickly joined in, both of them wrapping their arms around the tallest of the three of them and holding him tightly. “Thank you,” Vegeta finally stated in earnest, choosing not to point out the fact that Piccolo was sobbing quietly. “Thank you, Piccolo. Other than my dead mates and my brats, you and Kakarot are the only true friends I’ve ever had… and I’m sorry that you’re the one that we had to ask this of.”_

_“Same, Piccolo,” Goku echoed. “Thank you. I know it’s been hard since Gohan died. It’s been hard on me, too,” he admitted gently._

_There was a long silence between the three of them, and surprisingly enough it was Goku who broke the three-way hug first, rubbing at the back of his head awkwardly. “Well… three days, then? Vegeta and I have some things we need to take care of with all of the kids and grandkids. Trunks and Goten will understand, as will the kids that’ve wished themselves full-blooded Saiyan, but Pan and Bra are going to be hard to convince.”_

_“Kakarot and I have some personal matters to attend to as well,” Vegeta added, lifting his brow when the younger Saiyan blushed slightly. “Kakarot, don’t be an idiot, the Namek knows about the last few hundred years of burnings and you know it.”_

_“I preferred it when you actually used my name, Vegeta,” Piccolo muttered dryly, only to stifle a chuckle when the prince actually laughed in response._

_“Your name is reserved only for hugs, Namek,” he answered as he continued to laugh softly. “Which means that you’ll never hear it out of me again.”_

##########################################

                “Heh… my son mated with the Saiyan prince, then?” Bardock asked in mild surprise. “I wonder who was on the bottom.”

                “From my understanding, they traded off whenever the burnings hit. And no, they didn’t mate. When we met up for the fight I asked them why they hadn’t, and Vegeta admitted that he didn’t think he’d be able to hurt Goku if they were mated. And since Goku was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be able to fight Vegeta either, they told their beasts to shut up during the three days before the battle. The way I understand it, it wasn’t exactly easy.”

                “If they cared for each other as much as I’m guessing they did, it would have been difficult,” Bardock agreed, mulling over the surprising longevity his people apparently had if they didn’t bite the dust in battle prematurely. “But the pain they would have went through in killing each other if they’d been marked… it would have been unbearable to actually go through with it, so I’m glad that neither of them had to endure that sort of thing. So… who won?”

                “It was a draw,” Piccolo snorted. “They both died at the exact same moment, both of them wearing those same stupid, shit-eating grins when they hit each other at full force.”

###########################################

_“Vegeta.”_

_The prince didn’t miss the soft tone of Goku’s voice as they both chewed the last pair of senzu beans, and since they had an audience he normally would have ignored him or told him to grow a pair, but… they were about to die… … …so fuck it. Fuck it all. “Kakarot.”_

_Daring to step forward, Goku pulled him into the tightest bear hug he could manage while his strength was still returning, and he actually felt tears prick his eyes when Vegeta’s arms encircled him in return and his prince let out a brief purr of comfort. “I love you, Vegeta,” he whispered with a tender smile. “I hope you know that you’re the best friend I’ve ever had.”_

_“Same, Kakarot,” Vegeta grunted, unable and unwilling to get all emotional and soft, even if he did return the sentiment. Even if he did love him as much as he’d loved Bulma. No matter what, just like his very first mate, Kakarot had always been there for him and right then was no exception, but if Vegeta allowed himself to get emotional, then he’d never be able to follow through with their suicide pact. “It’s been… an experience.”_

_“Yeah… you could say that,” Goku replied as he drew back, his eyes brimming with unshed tears before he dared to dip forward and kiss Vegeta. “_ Tah’kha’or au, ve’ho m’yo _._ _I should have said it years ago…_ r’sha _. I’m sorry that I didn’t.”_

 _“Goddamnit, Kakarot,” Vegeta sighed wearily. “We talked about this. We already said our goodbyes, so don’t start getting all sentimental on me **now**! If you had more to say,” he added in a heated whisper that he hoped the Namek couldn’t hear, “you should have said it **last night**!” The tears spilled over onto the third-class warrior’s cheeks then, and the prince sighed as he pulled Kakarot down to him by his spikes and kissed him roughly, a little growl leaving his throat as their tongues touched and the taller of them purred softly in response. “_ Nee m’eh tah’kha’or au _,_ r’sha _,” he breathed once they separated. “Now… let’s do this. Let’s kill each other. No more sentimental crap until we’re at Yemma’s… alright?”_

_“Sure,” Goku replied gently, his fingertips trailing over the prince’s cheek as he bent to kiss him one last time, choosing not to mention the fact that there were tears streaking the shorter warrior’s face as well. “I’m ready, Vegeta.”_

_“Good.” They released each other then and put enough distance between them for what they’d planned, and both of them erupted into the red flames of the Super Saiyan God, grinning stupidly at each other from the power high that always came with the transformation. “Make it good, Kakarot,” Vegeta growled. “Don’t you **dare** hold back on me.”_

_“Hell no, you think I **want** you to outlive me!?” Goku laughed. “I’m just as ready to go out with my boots on as you are!”_

_“You know what, Kakarot? Since you love me **so much** … I hope you enjoy it when I blow my load all over your insides!” Vegeta cackled maniacally as he erupted into ki flames of blue and ascended to level one… then finally pushed as hard as possible to reach Super Saiyan God two. _

_“Ooo, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when you talk dirty, Vegeta!” Goku replied just as hysterically while he pushed his power to the limit to ascend as well._

_And off to the side, Piccolo just rolled his eyes at them both despite the fact that he was about to watch them die. Some things just never changed, and Goku and Vegeta’s rivalry was one of them. “Still like a couple of fucking teenagers,” he sputtered._

###########################################

                “You did that weird Namekian telepathic mind link with them, didn’t you?” Bardock asked suddenly. “That’s how you knew exactly what they were thinking and feeling.”

                “It was also the only way I’d know who won their stupid fight,” Piccolo sputtered, his tone exactly the same as it’d been centuries ago when he’d called Goku and Vegeta a couple of fucking teenagers. “They insisted. _Assholes_.”

                “So… you got all of their memories in the process,” Bardock said softly, mulling over his question.

                “Some of them I’ve tried to block out,” Piccolo snorted. “Trust me, I dreamt one night about what those two got up to during the burning and it scarred me for life, Bardock. Ugh… don’t even get me started on it. I didn’t sleep for two days after that.”

                “You… you wouldn’t happen to know if Kakarot remembered me at all… would you?” Bardock asked hopefully. “I know he was only three when he was sent to Earth, but… I saw him once. He looked at me. No, that’s stupid. Of course he didn’t remember me. Forget I asked.”

                It didn’t take a genius to see that Bardock’s heart was breaking at the knowledge that his children were dead; sure, he’d known it, but actually hearing about it from someone that had known his youngest son nearly all his life—the same being that had killed his oldest, too—really hit home and the Saiyan simply couldn’t stop wondering about the baby he hadn’t even officially met.

                “Actually,” Piccolo mumbled, eyes half-closed as he delved into Goku’s memories. “He remembered you when his memories returned a few centuries after he arrived. He remembered you looking at him through the window. And he thought… he thought that you looked sad.”

                “I was,” Bardock admitted with a hint of a blush to his cheeks. “But as a Saiyan warrior, I didn’t dare voice it. I was strong and so was my mate and Raditz and Turles. I’d never thought I’d be forced to send a brat of mine away because he was too weak. I had to do it, though, it was either that or—“

                “Goku never blamed you for it, Bardock,” Piccolo informed him. “He was pretty sure that you didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. In fact, that one memory of you was one that he cherished. He wished that he could meet you; he even cried when Vegeta told him that you’d died bravely in the genocide… heh, if only they’d known the truth.”

                “Yeah,” Bardock sighed. “The truth is that I still didn’t get to watch my boys grow into the fine warriors that they were. Even Raditz… to you he was a pain in the ass, but he was a good boy before Frieza. If not for Frieza, he would have grown into a warrior that we could’ve all been proud of. Frieza,” he repeated, his voice cracking as his beast growled angrily. “Gods damn him… may he rot in Hell for everything he’s done.”

                “He is. I’ve seen him there myself, tied up in a tree and surrounded by everything that abhors him the most.”

                “ _Good_.”

                That brought Piccolo to another reason for his visit, and he hesitated to voice it for a moment, trying to think of a tactful way to suggest it. “Bardock… your sons are there, too. Raditz and Turles. Wait before you say anything,” he added quickly when the Saiyan shot him an angry glare that didn’t lose any of its heat just because Bardock was blind. “Centuries ago, we all discussed it many, many times. Wishing them back. Giving them second chances. Even Nappa. But none of us could ever agree on it, especially Vegeta, and since he knew firsthand about how long it took to reform himself from a life of killing, we went with his decision. But you… you would know your sons better than anyone, I would think, and if _anything_ they would listen to you if we wished them back. Would they?” Piccolo asked slowly.

                “Of course they would,” Bardock snorted. “I’m their old man and no matter how big they’ve gotten I can still kick their asses. Why? Is such a thing actually possible?” He asked as it dawned on him what that meant. “What do you mean, ‘wish them back’?”

                As Piccolo explained, Bardock brightened, a real smile turning up his lips. He would get to see his sons again. He’d be able to watch them grow into the fine warriors that he knew they could be, even if they were no longer children—even if they would be right around his own current age.

###################################

                Bardock was even quieter than usual when Piccolo returned him to Mako’s side that evening; she’d left at the beginning of his visit with the Namekian in order to give them some privacy, and when she noted the bags under the Saiyan’s eyes and a few tears tracks in the dirt he’d accumulated from fighting with Nephrite, she knew she’d done the right thing in leaving them alone. Bardock didn’t seem like a man that cried easily, let alone in front of others, and she knew he would have been embarrassed if she’d seen him cry. “ _M’eh t’uh m’kor. Au t’uh m’kor_ , Doc?” She asked as she took his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. She’d asked if he wanted to talk about it and he’d shook his head and stated “later,” the translation coming through over her earpiece. Maybe if he didn’t want to talk, he’d at least want to get some rest. Whatever was on his mind, he could surely think about it in the morning, right?

                A grunt and a shrug was the only answer she got, but when Mako stood on her tiptoes to kiss him gently, she was reassured that he’d be fine when he briefly returned it and stuttered out a quiet purr for several moments. “Come on, honey. Oh, and Piccolo, you’re welcome to stay however long you’d like,” she called back towards him as she and Bardock approached the palace. “If you need anything, just call me or come find me.”

                She just winked at him when he blushed, but that was all the flirting she would spare for him when Bardock was so obviously troubled, and by the time they got to her quarters, he looked more ragged than she’d ever seen him. Even worse than during the eclipse. Maybe some rest and a few days to let it all sink in would make it better for him.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has to be the most fun I've had writing a chapter in a LONG time. Yall will see why in a few minutes! :D

                Blushing furiously at the packets Motoki had put all in one pile, Mako didn’t know whether to laugh herself silly or cry her eyes out in embarrassment; every single one of the envelopes in the pile were white and green with the Jovian symbol on them—formal wedding gift envelopes used only on her home planet. And every single one of them held notes or cards of well-wishing and cash. “And of course there’s not a single graceful way for me to refuse them… even if they _had_ been properly signed.”

                Oh, her people were clever; all of the cards had been signed but no surnames had been given and no checks had been written, so even if she could have refused them by explaining that she had neither proposed marriage to Bardock… yet, nor had he to her… yet, she had no plausible way to do so. “I swear, I think they all got together and planned this,” she grumbled.

                They had, in fact.

                If Makoto had been more technologically inclined, she would have seen the messages all over the social networks, instructing Jovians that wished to send wedding gifts to do so without a return address or a surname, and requests for all of the newspapers and the TV stations not to breathe a word about the notices on the internet so that it would remain a surprise and a mystery to the queen of Jupiter.

                And of course, all of it had been orchestrated by the queens of Mars, Venus and Mercury.

                “They approve, Mako, that’s the important thing, that’s the message that they’re sending,” Motoki pointed out. “This money isn’t for you… it’s for Bardock. Your people are welcoming him—a man that came to us with nothing, with no home or people—by making sure he’s taken care of. That he has enough money to purchase anything he needs without being dependent on you. Just accept it,” he added with a patient smile when she sighed and rubbed at her forehead with the heel of her hand.

                “I can’t fault them for wanting to give Doc his independence,” Mako agreed. “You’re right. I hate the idea of him feeling like he has to stay with me out of gratitude or because he has no other options… even though I’m sure that’s not the case. I hope so, anyway,” she added with a touch of the paranoia she’d felt all day but tried her best to bury deep.

                “That’s _not_ the case,” Toki sighed, giving her a brief hug before wisely changing the subject and nodding towards the door between the bedroom and the sitting room. “He still asleep?”

                “No, he left with Piccolo before dawn,” Makoto murmured as she thought about how often he’d woken with bad dreams throughout the night, babbling in Saiyan as he’d clung to her tightly. And then the one time he’d made love to her, it had been with a level of desperation so fierce that she’d known instinctively that he was only trying to erase whatever he’d seen in his nightmares. “It was a long night. When he gets back I’m going to offer to spar with him if whatever Doc and Piccolo are doing doesn’t clear his head. Hm… maybe that’s what they’re doing? Something tells me they’re on the same level… but I think the green bean might actually be able to give Doc a run for his money.”

                “Did they say how long they’d be gone?” Motoki asked slowly, not quite ready to drop his bombshell of the morning on his queen. Not yet, anyway. It would be much, much better if Bardock wasn’t present for the shitstorm that was about to hit the fan. The last thing they needed was another dead body in the throne room.

                “I don’t know,” Mako sighed, again filled with paranoia. “He said that he and Piccolo needed to do something very important, that it had to do with his family, and that if everything went well he’d come back by sunset. If not…” She shrugged. “I don’t know,” she repeated lamely. “He said he’d explain the trip when he came back.”

                “Sunset, then,” he murmured. “Good, that should give us enough time to deal with the fact that Diamond arrived about an hour ago and is demanding an audience.”

                “DIAMOND’S HERE AND YOU DIDN’T SAY SO RIGHT AWAY!? THE **_FUCK_** IS WRONG WITH YOU, TOKI!?” Mako shrieked as she jumped up from her seat and ran to the closet to find a formal gown so she could head down to the throne room and deal with him quickly, _before_ Bardock got back.

##############################

                “You’re sure about this?” Piccolo grunted as he set down the last of the dragon balls.

                “Yeah, why? We’re more than powerful enough to handle them, aren’t we?” Doc asked, looking towards the Namekian’s voice out of habit even though he couldn’t see him. “Even without my eyes I can still track their ki, and I’m positive that I’m stronger than Nappa now. I wasn’t before the timejump, but after nearly dying…” He shrugged at that, recalling that strange power boost he’d felt as he’d brutally destroyed Rubeus with his bare hands and how an immense strength had filled him from out of nowhere, skyrocketing his baseline energy level beyond belief.

                “It’s not that,” the Namek sighed, “it’s just that the moment we raise our power levels, your descendants are going to sense us. Or rather, they’ll sense me… and someone that feels an _awful_ lot like Goku or his first two sons,” he chuckled. “And _then_ , you’re going to get buried up to your eyeballs in grandbabies. They’re all very eager to meet you.”

                “I know, I know,” Bardock huffed, “but at least let a man get his eyes back before you dogpile seven or eight generations of grandbrats on him!”

                “No worries, I won’t alert them to your presence,” Piccolo assured him. “You’ll do that all on your own if you raise your ki, Bardock.”

                “Yeah, yeah. Just get on with it, Namek.”

                “Don’t start that Vegeta bullshit with me,” he grumbled as he positioned himself in front of the dragon balls and raised his arms to the sky, only to grin suddenly. “Heh… you know what? I’m positive that summoning the dragon’s going to draw at least Gohan and a few others,” he snickered.

                “What!?” Bardock shouted.

                It was too late to stop him though; Piccolo wore an evil smirk as he called out to Shenron to appear, and within moments the sky was dark and the dragon was floating before them.

                “UGH… YOU AGAIN? CAN’T ANYONE ELSE EVER FIND THESE DAMNED THINGS? WAIT. NO, DON’T TELL ME. ANOTHER QUARTER-SAIYAN WANTS TO BE FULL-BLOODED? WAIT. NO. THIS ONE’S ALREADY FULL-BLOODED,” the dragon boomed as he examined Bardock from head to toe.

                “Actually, no, Lord Shenron,” Piccolo said respectfully. “Our wish is to bring back his children and move them here. Our second wish…” He sighed heavily at that and really, really hoped that a certain general was going to behave… otherwise, things were going to get very, very fucking messy. “…is to wish back General Nappa and bring him here as well. If Bardock’s sure about it, anyway.”

                “Yeah, I’m sure,” the Saiyan in question sighed, rolling his blind eyes. “And he’d better be really fucking grateful I didn’t wish for my eyesight instead. Thankfully, I’ve learned some patience during my stay with Koto.”

                “Remind me again just why we’re wishing him back?” Piccolo asked gruffly, distinctly recalling how the massive Saiyan had killed him in the process of trying to kill Gohan.

                “Eh, good times at the bar. Good times after training. I was one of the best students in my class and we got on alright. Nappa wasn’t a horrible guy. Not all the time, anyway,” Bardock answered before frowning and holding up a hand to wait. “Ugh… tell you what. Let’s ask my boys. Even before Frieza took over when I was a teenager, Nappa could still be a colossal dick and I’d feel bad if someone innocent got wasted because of him. Shenron?” Bardock asked, looking around and then up when he heard the dragon grunt in reply. “Just my boys. For now, anyway. Then could you hold off on the second wish for a minute while we talk it over?”

                “SURE. WHY NOT. IT’S NOT LIKE THE MAGICAL FUCKING DRAGON HAS BETTER THINGS TO DO WITH HIS TIME,” Shenron sassed in annoyance. “YOUR FIRST WISH IS GRANTED, NOT COUNTING KAKAROT, WHO DOESN’T WISH TO RETURN WITHOUT VEGETA.”

                “You weren’t always this pissy,” Piccolo muttered just before Raditz and Turles appeared before him and focusing on the Namekian with narrowed eyes, both of them powering up immediately, their intentions clear.

                “What, you two aren’t going to at least say hello to your father?” Bardock drawled out in Saiyan, his lips twitching up in a smirk when he felt their power levels plateau and heard two astonished gasps. “If you want a hug you’ll have to come to me. I can’t see,” he informed them, taking two blind steps in their direction, sorely missing having Makoto as a guide. Piccolo could have done it, but during their trip Bardock had made it clear that he didn’t need his help, preferring not to rely on the other warrior out of pride… but with Koto, it was different. It wasn’t so much pride as it was simply enjoying her touch.

                “F—Father?” Raditz choked out, his eyes wide in disbelief. “B—But… but Frieza… he… he killed you. I saw the video.”

                “You tried to save us,” Turles whispered in awe, recalling the very same replay he’d seen with his brother while in Frieza’s service. “It’s why I mutinied.”

                “Mutinied?” Bardock grunted. “Huh. Well, I guess that makes sense. The Namek here told me that you went space pirate or something.”

                “Yeah, or _something_ ,” Piccolo added with a roll of his eyes. “Not like the asshole told us a whole lot about himself before trying to destroy the Earth. I didn’t even know he was your son until I went to Hell.”

                Just as he was the first to speak, Raditz was the first to move and he darted forward to embrace his sire tightly, quickly joined by a wide-eyed, disbelieving Turles, who hadn’t seen his father since he was six. Raditz had been ten at least and had a better memory of him, but the elder brother had seen to it that the younger knew plenty of stories about their father’s prowess in battle and what an honorable, well-respected warrior he’d been. “Dad,” Turles murmured once he’d gotten over his shock, “why are you blind?”

                “Long story,” Bardock sighed as he released the bear hug he had each of his boys in, marveling at how big they’d gotten. He couldn’t see them, but he could sure as hell tell that Raditz had well over a foot on him! “Damn, you got huge, boy,” he chuckled as he patted Raditz’s arm to find it and then gave it a squeeze. “Now, come on, let’s not piss off this magical dragon that I can’t even see,” he added with a chuckle. “I’m sure he has better things to do than sit around and wait on us.”

                “OH. FINALLY. SOMEONE THAT ACTUALLY SHOWS ME A MODICUM OF RESPECT,” Shenron snorted. “YES, YOU ARE DEFINITELY KAKAROT’S FATHER.”

                “What’s he waiting on?” Raditz asked before looking at Piccolo suspiciously. “And _why_ aren’t we trying to kill the Namek?”

                “Piccolo would wipe the floor with both of you, that’s why. And before he’d even get a chance to, I’d beat both your asses into the ground for trying. Blind or not, taller than me or not,” Bardock added towards Raditz, “I’m still your Father and you’re both going to fucking behave from here on out. Understand me? No more killing innocent people.” After a few moments he growled in irritation, his tail thrashing behind him. “I don’t hear anything, brats.”

                “They nodded,” Piccolo stated blandly.

                “Forgot you were blind, old man.”

                “Yeah, sorry. We get it, Dad.”

                “Oh. Ok, then,” Bardock huffed. “Now, onto the Nappa issue… we get another wish. Do we wish him back or not?”

                “And if we do, can we trust him to behave?” Piccolo chimed in.

                “You’re damn right we wish him back!” Raditz immediately shouted at Piccolo angrily. “He would’ve done the same for me! Vegeta was a total dick and wanted immortality, but Nappa was ready to wish me back!”

                “Not to mention, he took the heat off of me when I mutinied and took off with some of Frieza’s crew,” Turles added gravely. “He convinced Frieza that I wasn’t worth the effort and saved my life in the process. If anything, we owe him the chance to come back.”

                “Yeah, sure. After he obliterated Earth’s army and killed me, Chiaotzu and Tien,” Piccolo muttered. “We don’t owe him shit.”

                “He also saved my life like, a dozen times growing up,” Raditz added vehemently. “Nappa’s as loyal as they come and I’m positive that after we’ve talked with him, he’ll agree not to kill anyone!”

                “And to be fair,” Turles chimed in with a grin, “your army shouldn’t have been so fucking stupid. Or weak.”

                “Turley,” Bardock growled softly in warning, “shut the fuck up or I’ll knock you into next week. If you can’t be civil to the warrior that helped to wish you back, don’t say anything.”

                “Fine,” he grumbled.

                “Look, the fact that you killed me aside and all the other bullshit, wish him back,” Raditz stated firmly. “Nappa’s honorable, believe it or not. He deserves a second chance far more than me or Turles. In fact, he was more interested in finding a woman on Earth to breed with than he was in destroying the planet. He was just following Vegeta’s orders. He’s loyal, like I said.”

                “How do you know all of that?” Piccolo questioned.

                “We’ve all been in Hell for like, ten thousand years, dumbass! We’ve _met_ ,” Raditz snapped.

                “Duh,” Turles huffed, rolling his eyes for emphasis. “Ten millennia hasn’t made you any smarter, Nam—OW! Damn it, Dad, what the fuck!?”

                Wishing that he could watch Turles clutch at his bruised face, Bardock just smiled and tipped his head in Piccolo’s direction respectfully. “I did warn him.”

                “Heh, they’re your kids, do what you want,” Piccolo chuckled, recalling how he’d raised many a smartass Saiyan kid over the years and how they almost never seemed to grow out of that attitude problem. “And speaking of kids… above you,” he added with a grin, raising a hand in greeting to a man that looked exactly like the very first child that Piccolo had ever raised.

                No surprise, Piccolo had raised this one as well after his parents had been killed in battle. “Gohan, it’s ok! Come down!”

                No sooner had he spoken, Gohan swooped down at beamed at the lot of them once he’d turned to Shenron and bowed deeply in respect, going straight to Bardock and looking him up and down in reverent awe. “ _Ja’ja’ta… eh_.”

                “At the rate we’re going, I’m just going to remove the translator,” Bardock snorted in his direction. “Everyone on this planet seems to speak Saiyan.”

                “Just the older ones,” Gohan informed him shyly, “and only a few of us speak it fluently. Most of them are too focused on training.”

                “Heh, can’t say I blame them,” Bardock said wryly. “Pardon me a moment, kid. Piccolo,” he stated seriously, “you wanna make this wish?”

                “Yeah,” he grumbled. “Shenron, if you wouldn’t mind, we’d like to wish back General Nappa with our second wish.”

                “ABOUT DAMN TIME. GRANTED.”

                The sky cleared then, and Bardock grinned when he heard Nappa cussing a blue streak only a few feet away, obviously floored by his sudden appearance on Earth. “Hey, old man,” he snickered, “you gonna stand around bitching or are you gonna say hi?”

                “B—Bardock!? What the fuck!? _And_ Raditz… _and_ Turles…? Holy fucking shit. What’s the green man doing here and who’s the fucking kid!?” Nappa yelled, taking everything in with wide, black, very confused eyes.

                “The kid is my great… huh. How many generations, son?” Bardock inquired.

                “Six, sir. I’m the oldest left, about four thousand years old,” Gohan answered.

                “Sir, huh? Heh, I like that. Your parents raised you right, kid,” the blind warrior said with an approving smile, unable to see the proud look in Piccolo’s eyes. “You’ll forgive me calling you kid even though you’re older than me by a few millennia. Anyways, Nappa, when Frieza blew up our planet it caused some kind of a time anomaly. I appeared on a planet called Jupiter and I’ve been there for a few weeks. After an altercation with a bag of dicks that was trying to kill the woman I’m courting, Piccolo came and found me. Now we’re here, wishing your sorry ass back and giving you a second chance at life… if you can promise to behave, that is. If not…”

                Gasps were heard from the full-blooded Saiyans when Bardock powered up to his maximum and glared blindly in Nappa’s direction. “…then I’ll have to kill you and send you back. Seems like an awful waste of a wish, though, so I’m hoping you’ll agree not to kill any innocents.”

                “Holy shit, dude,” Nappa breathed, “never thought I’d actually see a Super Saiyan with my own fucking eyes. Nice,” he chuckled once he’d gotten over his awe and Bardock just lifted an eyebrow in confusion. “You’re blonde,” he explained. “Legendary Super Saiyan, like your youngest son and a lot of your descendants.” Turning to Gohan, he gestured for him to demonstrate, and when the kid just shrugged and erupted into golden ki flames, Nappa couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of his nonchalance. “Of course, to the lot of _you_ it’d seem like fucking child’s play, but we full-blooded Saiyans from Vegeta-sei struggled to find that kind of power since we were in fucking diapers.”

                Mouth open in wonder, Bardock shook his head as he felt Gohan’s energy spike even higher, much, much higher than his own. “You mean that I… I actually… did it? I achieved the legend? And that this kid…? Holy shit, boy, quit it before you put us in a crater,” he added when his power level skyrocketed… and then went too high for even Bardock to read properly.

                “Quit showing off, Gohan!” Piccolo chastised just then, stopping his ascent to Super Saiyan God level two. “Can’t exactly blame you, but damn. Have _some_ modesty. Your uncles look ready to piss themselves.”

                “What’s with the red hair?” Raditz choked out. “Is… is that like… Super Saiyan Three or something…?”

                “Nah, that’d give me hair as long as yours,” Gohan laughed as he powered down and his hair returned to normal. “I can only imagine what that transformation would do to you! You’d be like… Rapunzel or something! What I just did is called Super Saiyan God. It’s something Grandpa Goku and Grandpa Vegeta learned from Beerus the Destroyer and Lord Whis. It’s an old but very difficult technique, and only a few of us can reach that level. Some of the kids are working on it, though; I think Trunks is just about ready for five of us to imbue him with the power. Er… Trunks the Fourteenth, to be exact. The original Trunks, Vegeta’s eldest son, was the first of the half-Saiyans to achieve it. Goten was the second. My namesake never really wanted to try so he didn’t bother.”

                “Enough,” Piccolo said with a hint of humor, “they’re too stunned to really take it all in and there’s a lot of things they’ll learn about us over the next couple of years. Let’s get them back to Jupiter before your cousins get here, alright? I think Bardock’s the only one prepared for the grandchild dogpile.”

                “Yeah, Trunks is nearly here and quite a few are behind him, I can sense them. You guys go on ahead and I’ll explain that we’re giving them some time to adjust,” Gohan offered. “I’ll make sure that Trunks doesn’t convince Junior to teleport him to Jupiter.”

                “Heh, thanks. Alright, everyone, hands on me unless you feel like getting buried in a pile of eight generations of Saiyans and half-Saiyans.” When Nappa hesitated and looked towards the approaching kis, Piccolo snorted and waved him over. “What are you waiting for, come on, already!”

                “Are any of Vegeta’s grandkids really hot women?” Nappa asked, only to be grabbed and drug over by a laughing Raditz.

                “Some things never change, old man. Come on, we’re not leaving you here to sow your oats!”

                “But—“

                They were on Jupiter before Nappa could finish his sentence, and the lot of them looked around before shivering and cringing at the feeling of many, many full moons in the daytime sky. “What the serious fuck, Namek!?” Nappa roared.

                “No worries, I’m just showing you what’s in store for you if you step outside the palace grounds,” Piccolo rumbled, shoving Nappa over the line and into the moon-free zone, unable to stop himself from taking some pleasure in pushing the giant asshole around. “As long as you stay near the palace,” he informed Raditz and Turles as they quickly hurried into the safe zone, “you won’t feel the effects of Jupiter’s sixty-seven moons.”

                “SIXTY-SEVEN!?” They chorused.

                “Yup, I felt the effects of a triple eclipse the other night when Koto took me outside. Thankfully for both of us, she’s one of the system’s strongest warriors,” Bardock informed them, his cheeks coloring at the memory of that night. “She erected the barrier once she got me calm.”

                “Yeah,” Raditz snickered, “I bet she erected something, alright.”

                “Hush,” Bardock snorted, cuffing him on the arm.

                “Ow! Not so hard! You haven’t powered down!” Raditz snapped.

                “Shit… and _don’t_ power down,” Piccolo huffed. “There’s a fight in the throne room. It’s Makoto and she’s in trouble.”

                Pride thrown out the window, Bardock grabbed the Namekian by the arm and nodded. “Take me, I can’t see to go to her.”

                “Wait… Bardock’s blind?” Nappa rumbled in surprise. “Huh, I didn’t even notice.”

                Piccolo and Bardock were already gone, so it was left up to Turles to snort at Nappa and jerk him towards his father’s ki. “Of course you didn’t, that’s because you’re an idiot. Now  come on, if I can’t kill something, I wanna watch Father do it!”

                “Damn right!” Raditz crowed, “let’s go watch Dad kick some ass!”


End file.
